The Adventures of Captain Underpants
Great Books to Stir Children’s Reading Appetite
What makes reading magic for children in a world of Play Station, X-Box, Wee, Computer games and television? Somehow an ingenious author has written a series of books that keeps today’s confident children glued to pages of paper. Winner of the Disney Adventures Kids Choice Award; The Captain Underpants books with George and Herald, Mr. Krupp and Mrs. Ribble keep the kids riveted!
Humor –
Many standup comics use their personal experience or insight to ignite their humor. Eddie Murphy began his standup career talking (RAW) about his family gatherings. The late Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin all used individual observation along with personal experience to turn tragedy into humor. Jay Leno and Carl Reiner used a mix of topical observation combined with story telling. Robin Williams and Steve (the Broadway’s Underpants) Martin uses exaggerated actions and related observations.
42 year old Dav (David) Pilkey, a.k.a. Sue Denim, the Captain's author, uses many of the same tactics enlisted by successful comedians. His characters received names from children he knew and childhood actors he liked. Places were named after adults or locations he found humorous. For example “Jerome Horwitz Elementary School got its name from ‘Curly’ of Three Stooges” fame. Pilkey concluded: “My goal with The Adventures of Captain Underpants was to invent a style which was almost identical to that of a [funny] picture book.”
Attention –
The requirement of comics and comedy is to get, keep and surprise the listener (or reader.) “Surprise is the fundamental joke mechanism. Most punch-lines rely on an element of surprise,” said writer Bob Monkhouse.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph quotes George Carlin in an October 2006 article How to be Funny, “Shock is just another form of surprise, and comedy is based on surprise.” The article continues: “Jerry Seinfeld compares telling a joke to attempting to leap a metaphorical canyon, taking the audience with him.”
For today’s young audience of 2nd to 5th graders, the competition could never be greater. The Spring Ford School District in Pennsylvania USA says: “Research suggests that an average child's formal attention span (in minutes) is about as long as the age of the child” but it is “determined by the type of programming his or her brain receives.” The district suggests (as educators have for decades) to properly program the child's brain "...limit spectator activities [TV] and encourage mental gymnastics with activities like reading."
Audience –
Old Willy in Neil Simon's play The Sunshine Boys, said: “57 years in this business, you learn a few things. You know which words are funny and which words are not funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny.”
This fundamental principle holds across the generations. Dav Pilkey was interview by Main Street Scholastic Inc and said: “…when I was a second grader…My teacher used the word 'underpants' in class one day and everyone started laughing. She got mad and told us that underwear was not funny. We all laughed harder.”
The Magic –
So that’s it, that’s the magic! Funny words, that surprise and take the kids along. Just keep the kids laughing - that'll keep them interested and reading. As Old Willy would say: Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopy Pants is funny! Captain Underpants and The Wrath of The Wicked Wedgie Woman is funny too and recommended by 3rd, 4th & 5th graders.
8 year old Nikolay Grade 5
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