I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-“The Puking Song” (1989).

I usually try to pair kids books with kids music.  And this song might be a little inappropriate for kids, but it’s in the spirit of Captain Underpants, right?

“The Puking Song” is, yes all about puking (How I love to sleep in vomit, you don’t know the joy I get from it, waking up to the smell of puke…makes me shout I love you!).  It’s doesn’t get any more vulgar than that, although it is of course, pretty gross.

It’s sung by Joe Jack Talcum, with his rather whiny/slightly out of tune/childish voice.  It comes from a B-Side (really??) on the Smoking Banana Peels EP.  Yes, it is pretty gross, but I’ll bet it’s fun to sing along to in a crowded theater.

[READ: January 14, 2013] The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Captain Underpants is perpetually on the list of banned books, which is really quite funny (except that banned books are not funny), because honestly how bad could it be.  I had never read the book before, but Clark has been reading them all lately so I thought it would be interesting to read it as both a librarian (anti-banning) and as a parent (pro-ensuring-that-it-is-appropriate).  And what I learned is that I understand why people want to ban the book, but I think it’s utterly foolish and wrongheaded to do so.

So what’s so bad about the book?  Well, it’s silly and vulgar (and full of pictures of a superhero in his underpants, gasp), but the thing that I assume bugs authority figures is that it totally mocks and abuses authority figures–which is exactly what makes kids laugh and exactly what humorless authority figures hate.

So the story is about George Beard and Harold Hutchins, two mischievous kids.  Within the first two pages, they pass by a sign that says Pick Your Own Roses and they rearrange the letters to spell Pick Our Noses.  [I have to say that the other day Clark drew a comic in which a storefront said Come Visit Our Awfully Good Store.  A boulder smashed through it which left the result: Come Visit Our Awful Store.  And I was very proud of his creativity and thanked Pilkey for that direction of his comedy].  But that’s the level of mischief we’re talking about: putting soap bubbles in the band instruments and putting helium in the football.

So after school, the boys create and distribute a comic book called Captain Underpants (and we see the pages of the book in the book–the drawings are wonderful Pilkeyesque children’s drawings).  They sell the books for 50 cents.  Captain Underpants is a superhero.  He wears only underpants, he flings dirty underpants at villains and, in the end, he flushes on villain down the toilet.  His catchphrase: “Tra-La-Laa”

Pretty harmless stuff.  Well, Mean Old Mr. Krupp the principal hates George and Harold (and in fairness they do some pretty awful things–their pranks at the football game are way over the top, but very funny) and he hates Captain Underpants.  When he catches George and Harold red-handed, he makes them do chores for him rather than telling the football team who sabotaged their game.  So for weeks the boys wash Mr Krupp’s car and do extra homework and cut his toenails.  But the boys have a plan.

They send for a HypnoRing that  they saw in the back of a comic book.  And they use it to hypnotize Mr Krupp into letting them go.  But, before they can stop things, Mr Krupp is hypnotized into believing that he is Captain Underpants!  He takes off all his clothes, shaves his head and runs out into the world to fight crime.

So is the book bannable?  I would say no.  It’s so over  the top it’s hard to believe anyone would get their knickers in a twist about it.  But some people do.  My thinking is that since HypnoRings don’t actually work, there’s no real danger from the book.  Maybe some kids my try the pranks that the boys pull off, but I don’t think most of them would really work anyway.  So, it’s just a silly (and funny) book.  And they’ve assured that it will always always always sell.  Lighten up, man.