Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)

Infobox Book
name = Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Dav Pilkey
illustrator = Dav Pilkey
country = United States
language = English
series = "Captain Underpants" series
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Blue Sky (US),
Scholastic (US),
for most Little Apple (US)
pub_date = 1999
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by = Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets
followed_by = Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

"Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds)" is the third book of the "Captain Underpants" series by Dav Pilkey, notable for its long title. The series of American children's books are about two fourth graders, George and Harold, and their mean principal Mr. Krupp. This book was mentioned by George as the book with "the annoyingly long title".

Plot summary

Three evil aliens, Zorx, Klax, and Jennifer, land on the school roof and plan to take over the Earth by disguising themselves as cafeteria workers and feeding the kids alien food to turn them into evil zombie nerds and then using the kids to take over the world.

Meanwhile, in science class, George and Harold learn about the effects of mixing baking soda and vinegar together (the two ingredients don't mix and make a slimy sticky liquid, they explode). They decide to play a prank on the cafeteria ladies by giving them a recipe that involves mixing baking soda and vinegar. The recipe is disguised as a cupcake recipe, with instructions to make a set of the cupcakes for Mr. Krupp's birthday.

The lunch ladies decide to surprise Mr. Krupp and make cupcakes for the entire school. So instead of mixing a small amount of baking soda and vinegar, they mix a large amount: the result being that the school gets covered in the slimy green mixture. The lunch ladies get mad at Mr. Krupp (because he can't punish George and Harold because there's no proof they did anything wrong) and quit.

Zork, Klax, and Jennifer, badly disguised as humans, come in and take the open lunch lady job. They feed Zombie Nerd Juice for lunch, so everyone in the school (except George, Harold and Mr. Krupp, who are eating lunch together instead of in the cafeteria, which is their punishment for their prank) becomes a zombie nerd. George and Harold learn of the spacemen's plans to feed evil growth juice to the zombie nerds to make them humongous and evil, so it's easier to conquer Earth. George and Harold steal the growth juice and try to get rid of it, but accidentally pour it on a dandelion.

When the boys prove to Mr. Krupp that the lunch ladies are aliens, one of the aliens snaps his tentacle (a physical impossibility) at them, so Mr. Krupp becomes Captain Underpants. They fight the aliens, but are unable to defeat the zombie nerds, so they escape by going on the school roof and into the alien spaceship.

Inside they find some anti-zombie nerd juice, some destructive juice and some super-power juice. The aliens come in and lock them in a cell. George and Harold mix up the juices and signs on the ship so the aliens pour destructive juice into the fuel tank, which makes the spaceship explode.

Captain Underpants jumps off the space ship with George and Harold, claiming that he can use tissue paper to swing onto the ground. Of course, the tissue paper cannot support their weight and they fall, using Captain Underpants cape as a parachute. They end up landing near the mutated dandilion, which nearly kills Captain Underpants. George and Harold give him super power juice to help him break free.

Mixing anti-zombie nerd juice with root beer and having all the zombies drink it, they turn everyone back to normal. Mr. Krupp is no longer normal, though, because he drank the super-power juice, so now whenever he becomes Captain Underpants, he can fly and use other superpowers, thus making it harder for George and Harold to keep tabs on him. [If the back cover of the book mistakenly says 24 and 1/2 chapters, it is a rare book. Also, if somebody's edition has no words on page 97, he/she has an extremely rare book.]

Comic: Captain Underpants and the Night of the Living Lunch Ladies

The comic in the book starts with the Lunch Ladies cleaning up the cafeteria. The Janitor, without noticing, locks the school up for the weekend. The Lunch Ladies are forced to eat their own foods. The Janitor appears after the weekend and finds the Lunch Ladies dead. He takes them up a hill to bury them, but they come back to life as zombies. The Zombie Lunch Ladies attack the school, but Captain Underpants appears and attempts to give them wedgies. However, the Lunch Ladies feel no pain, and a fight begins. Captain Underpants leaps on the top of a building and the Zombie Lunch Ladies follow, but are wrapped up in toilet paper (known as, "The Toilet Paper of Justice). Unfortunately, they pour steak sauce on the toilet paper, and go after Captain Underpants by pushing him off the building, but the Zombie Lunch Ladies also fall off. Captain Underpants uses the rest of the toilet paper to swing to safety. The Zombie Lunch Ladies, however, fall into one trash can each. Captain Underpants sings his trademark, "Tra-La-Laaaaa!", as the comic ends.

Characters

Characters who first apppear in this book are:
*Zorx, Klax and Jennifer
*Mr. Morty Fyde
*The Lunch Ladies
*The Dandelion of Doom

Trivia

*The vinegar bottle's logo reads, "Vinnie Gurr's Vinegar".
*On page 35, we can not read some of the page because the goo created by mixing baking soda with vinegar covered some of the words
*There are 25 words in the title, as well as 167 characters (with spaces).
*There was a warning on the very last page, saying it that if you got in trouble by shouting "KA-BLOOSH!" (page 33), mail Dav Pilkey. This was just like the Professor Poopypants book.
*The beginning comic marks the second appearance of George and Harold, and is a parody of Star Wars.
*Captain Underpants says "To the Underwear Cave!", making a parody of the Batcave of Batman.
*This book is referenced in the fifth book: "NOOOO!" said Harold. "This is the juice we got from the spaceship back in our third book!" "You mean the one with the annoyingly long title?" said George."
*This was the last book of Captain Underpants smiling on the cover. Since the next books will have him open his mouth happily.
* On page 119, it is stated that George, Harold and Captain Underpants were "killed instantly" after hitting the ground, as the toilet paper couldn't hold their weight. However, the first sentence of the following page says "Just kidding.". Coincidentally, the toilet paper broke again, but were saved by Captain Underpants's cape
* The cupcake recipe "Krupcakes" is a parody of "cupcake"

Footnotes

2. If he/she doesn't have the 'Little Apple' symbol at the bottom of the spine of the book he/she has a new book that has lighter pictures (it makes it look nicer) and is not made by 'Little Apple'.

ee also

*Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets
*Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants