Bad Grandad’s Museum Is Open for Misbehaviour

Bad Grandad has always treated good manners as a personal attack, so opening a museum feels like the natural next step. In this comic caper, the exhibits are dusty, suspiciously valuable, and arranged according to rules that change whenever the old rascal feels like it.

“Bad Grandad opens a museum” sounds respectable for about three seconds. Then the doors swing open, a priceless object disappears, and a tour group discovers that the guide has replaced every historical fact with an embarrassing story about someone’s childhood.

The idea fits Andy Fanton’s comic universe perfectly. His work combines quick visual gags, daft characters, cartoon mayhem, and a fondness for turning ordinary situations into elaborate disasters. A museum gives Bad Grandad an entire building in which to cause trouble.

A Grand Opening With No Permission

The museum begins as a scheme to make money. Bad Grandad announces that he has collected “the finest treasures in history,” although most of them appear to have come from a garden shed, a charity shop, or somebody else’s mantelpiece. He hangs grand labels beside each object and charges extra for standing near the important bits.

His first exhibition is called “Things I Was Told Not To Touch.” It includes a royal crown, a medieval sword, a dinosaur bone, and a large red button protected by three ropes. Naturally, the button is the main attraction. Bad Grandad keeps insisting that it activates the emergency sprinklers, which guarantees that every visitor wants to press it.

The opening ceremony quickly loses control when the mayor cuts a ribbon that has been tied to a trapdoor. The mayor drops into a storage room, the brass band falls into a suit of armour, and Bad Grandad declares the event a tremendous success because ticket sales have doubled.

Exhibits With Attitude

Every room offers a new opportunity for a visual punchline. The Natural History gallery contains a stuffed mammoth that looks increasingly annoyed, while the transport display features a bicycle Bad Grandad claims belonged to a famous explorer. A small plaque explains that the bicycle was found “near a bus stop in Croydon.”

The medieval gallery is especially chaotic. A knight’s helmet refuses to stay on its stand, a dragon-shaped fountain sprays visitors with soup, and a castle model includes a working drawbridge. The arrangement brings to mind the playful historical nonsense found in George vs Dragon, where heroic traditions are cheerfully flattened by everyday foolishness.

Bad Grandad also creates a “Living History” section by hiring himself for every role. He becomes a Roman emperor at lunchtime, a Victorian inventor in the afternoon, and a prehistoric caveperson whenever someone asks why the lift is broken. His costume changes are fast, cheap, and increasingly inaccurate.

The Collection Compared

The fun comes from placing genuine museum language beside Bad Grandad’s completely unreliable interpretation of the past. Each exhibit promises education, yet delivers an argument, a practical joke, or a suspiciously recent object with a centuries-old label.

Museum Feature	Ordinary Museum	Bad Grandad’s Version
Audio guide	Calm historical commentary	Complaints recorded in three accents
Security system	Cameras and alarms	A bucket balanced over the door
Gift shop	Books and postcards	Mystery boxes of questionable origin
Guided tour	Carefully researched facts	Stories that become less believable
Special exhibition	Rare cultural artefacts	Objects found in Bad Grandad’s loft
Visitor rules	No touching the exhibits	Touch everything, but deny it later

The contrast gives the strip its comic engine. Bad Grandad wants the prestige of a serious cultural institution without accepting any of the responsibility. He borrows the language of scholarship, then uses it to justify selling a cracked vase as “an interactive archaeological experience.”

Why The Joke Works

A museum is usually associated with order, preservation, and quiet observation. Bad Grandad brings noise, shortcuts, and shameless opportunism into that setting. The clash makes even a simple gag feel larger: a missing sandwich becomes an artefact theft, and a queue for the toilet becomes a battle over access to a restricted wing.

The character’s confidence keeps the story moving. He never pauses to wonder whether the museum is legal, safe, or historically accurate. If a visitor catches him replacing a famous portrait with a self-portrait drawn on a paper plate, he simply explains that it is a temporary modern-art installation.

That attitude also gives the strip a warm comic rhythm. Bad Grandad may be selfish, cheeky, and hopelessly unqualified, but he is eager to entertain. His museum is a disaster because he wants it to be spectacular, and every failed attraction becomes a fresh excuse for another joke.

Small Strips, Big Trouble

The museum premise works well as a longer comic story, but it can also be broken into compact scenes. One panel might show Bad Grandad dusting an exhibit with a feather duster while the exhibit complains. Another could reveal that the “ancient mummy” is simply a visitor who fell asleep during the tour.

That fast, economical style connects naturally with Andy Fanton’s mini-strip archive, where a complete gag can build from a single visual misunderstanding. The museum offers plenty of those: a guard who cannot guard himself, a dinosaur skeleton that keeps losing bones, and a gift shop assistant who discovers that every souvenir has been priced in biscuits.

Characters from Fanton’s wider creative world could easily make cameo appearances. Boo! might haunt the museum after closing time, Carrotty Kid could investigate a suspicious exhibit, and a medieval visitor might mistake the ticket machine for a siege weapon. Each arrival would add a new comic viewpoint without taking attention away from Bad Grandad’s central scheme.

Plan Your Museum Visit

A successful visit requires patience, sturdy footwear, and a willingness to ignore every sign written in red crayon.

• Start with the “Greatest Treasures” gallery before Bad Grandad sells the exhibits.
• Keep clear of anything labelled “Do Not Press,” “Do Not Feed,” or “Probably Explosive.”
• Treat every historical claim as a punchline waiting to happen.
• Visit the medieval wing for the most elaborate traps and costume changes.
• Check the gift shop carefully before buying a souvenir with a suspiciously warm surface.

The museum’s best feature is its unpredictability. There is no dependable route, no reliable guide, and no guarantee that the exit will still be in the same place. That turns the building into a comic character of its own: creaky, boastful, badly maintained, and somehow still open for business.

Explore Andy Fanton’s cartoons, comic strips, and creative projects to discover more mischievous characters and brilliantly silly situations. Bad Grandad may have filled his museum with questionable treasures, but the real collection is the stream of visual gags waiting behind every door.