George and Harold

George Beard and Harold Hutchins are two of the protagonists of the Captain Underpants series. They are both based on their creator, Dav Pilkey. They are also members of Barney's Backyard Gang.

George Beard

 * George Beard (voiced by Kevin Hart in Captain Underpants:The first Epic Movie; who also voices Snowball on The Secret Life of Pets and voiced by Ramone Hamilton in The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants; who also did Axl in the 2018 version of The Grinch) writes down all the words for all the Captain Underpants comics.


 * George, like his best friend Harold, is a class clown and loves to pull pranks. However, George is more bold than Harold and usually the brains behind their prank ideas. George is ironically a bit more cautious when it comes to fighting monsters. Despite his pranking nature, George's actions are generally targeted towards adult cruelty, such as his teachers. His other hobbies are skateboarding, watching TV, and making comic books with Harold, where he writes the comics. He has created comic book characters like Captain Underpants, Super Diaper Baby, Timmy the Talking Toilet, Dog Man, Ook and Gluk, and the Amazing Cow Lady. Despite crediting himself as a good speller, he often misspells words. His favorite food is chocolate chip cookies.
 * George Beard was born a quarter of a year after his best friend Harold Hutchins. Described as a "precocious" child, George's mother had already taught him how to read and write, and by kindergarten, scored higher on tests "than most children half his age." In fact, George was so smart for his age his teachers recommended he skipped to the third grade, but his parents decided against it, reasoning that George would be overall better off in a classroom with students his age. George's parents, however, came to question that decision, as although it helped George develop adept social skills and was well-liked by his classmates, he was often bored in class due to his higher intellect and sometimes got into mischief, to the dismay of his teachers and parents.

When not riding his skateboard, reading comic books and graphic novels, or watching monster movies, George would often write stories, and had reportedly "filled up" twenty spiral notebooks full of "marvelously silly adventure stories" he had written, one such being The Fart That Ate Detroit. Most of George's stories would often get him in trouble, due to at least most of filled with inappropriate and violent content for his age, despite his classmates enjoying them whenever he read them aloud.

Sometime during or before kindergarten, he and his parents moved from Michigan to Piqua, Ohio, in the hopes of starting a new life. On his first school day there, George's mother wanted George to make a good first impression at school by wearing a tie, which, after a short argument, reluctantly agreed to wear it, stating that "ties are for nerds". On the way skateboarding to school, George was waiting for the traffic light to change when he saw Billy Bill, an unfriendly and cold gas station owner, push a yellow-haired boy his age towards a few mean-looking sixth-graders, who yank the kid up and steal the kid's lunch money, while the gas station owner watched and cruelly told the kid he needed to learn to stick up for himself, apparently humored by the child's lack of advantage against the bullies. George was visibly angered by the hostility and unfairness of the circumstance, as the bullies and Billy Bill were easily bigger than the kid who they were antagonizing and outnumbered him 5 - 1. When the light changed and the bullies had dragged the kid away, George walked over and switched the words on the gas station sign from "Free Brake Inspection" to "Free Bra Inspection", attracting the attention of an increasing mob of women, who become angry at the new words on the sign and attack the gas station owner. George ironically stated the same words Billy Bill had said to the kid.

Finished with Bill, George skateboarded to the school and spotted the bullies still mistreating the yellow-haired boy, Harold Hutchins and yelled at them to leave the kid alone. When the bullies Kipper Krupp and his gang began to run toward George, he undid his tie and proceeded to whip Kipper and his friends with his tie, scaring them to retreat into a trash bin. With the bullies in the trash bin, George stated firmly to them that if they messed with him or the kid, they "will get the tie", and snapped his tie in the air again to make his point. Through his tears, Kipper wailed for his uncle Benjamin Krupp, who came over and demanded what was going on. Kipper framed George for bullying him, and took George and the other kid (whom Krupp thought was lying about George merely defending himself), and took them into detention.

In detention, the two sat quietly until the kid started to draw. The kid introduced himself as Harold Hutchins, George's neighbor, and lent him papers to write on. George and Harold spent the entirety of the detention (which lasted all day due to Krupp being so busy that day he forgot about the boys) working on their first comic together, The Adventures of Dog Man. On the way out the school, the two came across Kipper and his gang, about to give "killer wedgies" to a couple of kindergartners, but when they saw George, the bullies released the kids and ran away. On the way home, the two talked about each other's interests and decided to start their own comic book company, Tree House Comix Inc.. After greeting his father, introducing him to Harold, making a couple of peanut butter and gummy-worm sandwiches, the boys went straight to George's bedroom and began writing a list of Kipper Krupp's strengths and weaknesses, only having but only needing "kinda dumb" under the weaknesses section.

The next day at school, the boys spent every free moment they had spying on Kipper and his gang, studying his schedule, behavior, and activities. The got his locker number and the type of padlock he used, even going so far as to stay after school, when Kipper had wrestling class. In just a week, George and Harold knew Kipper's schedule better than Kipper himself knew. One day after school, the boys went to a local hardware store and bought a padlock that was the same type as Kipper's, and went across the street to a toy shop and bought a Susie Sunshine Friendship Bracelet Kit. That weekend, George and Harold spent most of their time planning and designing pranks to assist them in putting an end to Kipper's bullying. They got a roll of shelf-lining paper from the Beard family's kitchen and pants and dress shoes Harold's father left behind and nailed them to a pair of wooden stilts they had built.

On Monday, George and Harold arrived at school fifteen minutes early to take the friendship bracelet kit and the stilt pants into the boy's lavatory inside a stall, which looked from the outside as if someone was using the toilet. When the rest of the students arrived, George and Harold continued with their day, until the afternoon when they asked to use the restroom, during which they quickly grabbed the stilt pants and used it and the shelf-lining paper to make measurements on and around Kipper's locker.

Harold Hutchins

 * Harold Hutchins (voiced by Thomas Middleditch in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie; who also voices Penn Zero and is voiced by Jay Gragnani in The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants; also does some additional voices in The Loud House) draws all the pictures for all the Captain Underpants comics. He is also cousins with Schroeder.
 * Harold's favorite "food" is gum, despite gum not being an actual food.
 * Harold, like his best friend George, is a class clown and loves to pull pranks. However, Harold is a bit more timid than George so he usually comes up with their prank ideas. Ironically, Harold is a bit bolder when it comes to fighting monsters. Despite his pranking nature, most of Harold's actions are generally targeted towards adult cruelty, such as his teachers. His other hobbies are skateboarding, watching TV, and making comic books with George, where he draws the pictures. He has created comic book characters like Captain Underpants, Super Diaper Baby, Timmy the Talking Toilet, Dog Man, Ook and Gluk, and the Amazing Cow Lady.

However, Harold did not gain any distinctive character traits until the ninth book, where he was revealed to be a quiet child and a bit shy following his parents' recent divorce. He started to come out of his shell when he met his best pal, George.
 * When Harold was six years old, his family moved to Vine Street in Piqua, Ohio, next door to George Beard. Harold's father had recently gotten divorced and moved to Nevada almost six months ago, none of which had been easy for Harold. He didn't talk much about the subject, and kept to himself, mostly, and drew lots and lots of pictures, mainly about monsters and superheroes. The monsters he created were always evil and ferocious, and his superheroes were always brave and trustworthy. Harold loved getting lost in his wonderful hand-drawn adventures, where the heroes were always triumphant gave the bad guys the punishment that they deserved.

Normally, every day Harold would get dressed and eat breakfast, trying hard not to think about the tough day ahead of him. He hated every minute at his elementary school, with his mean teacher, rough bullies, and a straight-up evil principal. He would brush his teeth and very carefully place his favorite drawings into his backpack, unaware that one day, his life would be changed forever.

On that day, Harold's mother helped him put on his backpack at the front door, assuring him that he might make a friend that day. She then tells Harold that a little boy had moved in next door last weekend, and asks him if he knows his name. Harold had seen the kid once or twice but never met him clearly, and shrugs. His mom suggests that he should go over and introduce himself, but poor Harold shrugs again. His mother then sends him off with a kiss and hug and hands him two dollars from her purse for his lunch, but tells him not to use it on any of the vending machines. Unfortunately, Harold's lunch money would never reach the candy or pop machine anyways, as it was usually taken by a sixth-grade bully named Kipper Krupp, who, coincidentally, was the nephew of the principal. Harold knew from experience that wisest thing to do would be to stay out of Kipper's way, making his daily walk to school much more complicated. He quickly ran in spurts from trash can to mailbox to the tree, hiding behind any object he could find, just in case Kipper and his friends were nearby.

Usually, the worst section of Harold's mad dash to school was the intersection by Dogwood Drive and Rosita Lane, due to no hiding locations except for the large tree next to the coffee shop and the sign at the gas station across the street. Most days, he was lucky when waiting for the walk signal, until this particular day.

Harold crouched quietly behind the tree at the coffee shop, concentrating on the traffic lights and cars, watching out for Kipper and his mooks. This was very stressful, but after a few minutes, the cars paused, the walk signal lit up, and Harold glanced left and right one more time before bolting for the display sign at the front of the gas station. Unfortunately for Harold, he is almost immediately noticed by the sadistic owner of the gas station, Billy Bill, who yells at him to get away from his sign. Then, the bullies come and start beating up Harold while Billy Bill laughs at him. Luckily, his new neighbor, George Beard arrived and changed the letters on Billy Bill's sign, which caused Bill to get beaten senseless by a bunch of women and used his tie to ward off the bullies. Unfortunately, the principal caught the boys and naturally, falsely accused them of bullying his nephew and sent them to detention.

George and Harold got to know each other in detention and started to make comic books together. As a result, the two became fast friends. However, they couldn't stand Kipper's reign of tyranny anymore, so they decided to prank him constantly, but it never worked. For a backup plan, they made up a phony ghost story and scared the bullies into giving up their cruel ways and since then, the boys had devoted their lives to pranks and making comic books. Their characters included Dog Man, Timmy the Talking Toilet, the Amazing Cow Lady, Super Diaper Baby, Ook and Gluk, and their most famous character, Captain Underpants.

Trivia

 * In the 12th and final book, Harold is revealed to be homosexual.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy's Adventures

 * Charlie Brown and Snoopy's Adventures of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (debut)