When Bad Grandad Rewrites The Past

Bad Grandad has a simple lesson plan: take a perfectly respectable piece of history, mix it with confident nonsense, and deliver the result as if he personally witnessed every event. His classroom may be imaginary, but his teaching style is instantly recognisable to anyone who has endured a family story that grows stranger with every retelling.

Created by cartoonist, writer, and comedian Andy Fanton, Bad Grandad turns historical misinformation into a comic engine. Kings, inventors, explorers, battles, and ancient customs all become opportunities for a dodgy explanation delivered with absolute certainty.

The joke works because the character never sounds like he is guessing. He sounds authoritative, experienced, and faintly offended that anyone might check the facts. That combination makes his version of the past far more entertaining than an accurate textbook summary.

A Family Historian With Flexible Facts

Bad Grandad does not merely get history wrong; he remodels it to suit his own personality. If a famous battle involved careful tactics, he may explain it as an argument over garden tools. If a celebrated ruler changed a nation, Grandad might claim it was because nobody else wanted the job.

His explanations often begin with the rhythm of a genuine educational anecdote. There is a date, a name, or a grand historical setting, followed by a sudden collapse into absurdity. The contrast gives each gag its punch: readers recognise the shape of a lesson before the character cheerfully replaces the facts with rubbish.

That makes him a useful comic guide to historical parody. The strip does not need a long explanation of the real event. A familiar reference point is enough for Grandad to send the story wildly off course.

The Confidence Of A Wrong Answer

The funniest feature of Bad Grandad’s misinformation is his complete lack of doubt. He does not pause to remember whether the Roman Empire came before or after the television licence. He simply states his version and expects the audience to admire his expertise.

This certainty creates a strong character voice. Bad Grandad is not a confused professor or an innocent storyteller. He is a show-off with a lifetime of questionable knowledge and an eagerness to pass it on. His memory may be unreliable, yet his delivery is flawless.

That contrast also makes the character feel familiar. Many families have their own unofficial expert: someone who remembers every detail of an event they did not attend and can explain any subject after hearing half a sentence about it. Grandad gives that habit a historical costume and a much sharper punchline.

From Ancient Myths To Modern Nonsense

The past is especially useful for comic exaggeration because it is full of dramatic ingredients. There are emperors, castles, plagues, pirates, inventions, battles, and bizarre fashions. Bad Grandad can turn any of them into evidence for a theory that is ridiculous but strangely plausible for three seconds.

A story about medieval life might become a complaint about poor customer service at the castle. An account of an explorer’s voyage could be reduced to a disagreement over who brought the map. Even an important scientific discovery can be reframed as an accident caused by somebody refusing to read the instructions.

Fanton’s medieval-themed humour fits naturally beside this approach. The costumes and settings suggest seriousness, while the dialogue punctures it. A grand historical backdrop becomes funnier when the central authority figure behaves like a stubborn relative holding court at the kitchen table.

Historical subject	Bad Grandad’s likely explanation	What makes it funny
Medieval castles	Built mainly to improve the view from the kitchen	A grand monument receives a petty domestic purpose
Famous battles	Settled after someone lost the important paperwork	Heroic conflict becomes ordinary incompetence
Ancient inventions	Discovered when nobody followed the instructions	Progress depends on an accidental mistake
Royal ceremonies	Organised to make queues look expensive	Ceremony is reduced to familiar irritation
Great explorers	Travelled because they missed the turning home	Adventure is explained as everyday confusion

Why Wrong History Makes Good Cartoons

Historical comedy depends on a shared understanding between writer and reader. The audience does not need a lecture on every event, but it helps to recognise the broad outline. Once that outline is visible, Bad Grandad can scribble all over it.

His errors also keep the jokes accessible. A reader does not need specialist knowledge of Tudor politics or ancient engineering to enjoy the basic reversal. The familiar version is serious; Grandad’s version is personal, petty, and completely untrustworthy.

That balance is central to comic strips. A small number of words must establish the setting, reveal the character, and deliver the twist. Bad Grandad’s habit of teaching history incorrectly gives each scene an immediate premise, while his bluster supplies the recurring personality.

Finding Bad Grandad In Fanton’s Work

Bad Grandad sits among the varied comic creations associated with Andy Fanton, whose portfolio includes strips, drawings, writing, television projects, mini-strips, and work published in The Dandy. Characters such as George vs Dragon, Boo!, and Carrotty Kid show the breadth of his cartooning, while Bad Grandad adds a particularly mischievous voice to the collection.

Readers can explore the Bad Grandad comics alongside Fanton’s other comic work. The wider archive makes it possible to see how different premises create different kinds of humour: fantasy conflict, visual silliness, wordplay, and character-led absurdity all have their own rhythm.

What connects these projects is a clear affection for the compact comic idea. A strong character can carry a whole strip, especially when that character has one terrible habit and no intention of changing it. For Bad Grandad, that habit is confidently replacing history with whatever explanation sounds best at the time.

How To Enjoy The Lessons

Bad Grandad’s lectures are best treated as entertainment rather than revision material. His version of history may be memorable, but it should never be trusted without checking a reliable source afterwards.

The character’s appeal grows when readers notice the gap between the real subject and the invented explanation. That gap rewards a second look, particularly when a tiny detail reveals how far Grandad has twisted the original fact.

• Treat every claim as suspicious, especially when it is delivered with great confidence.
• Look for the ordinary family complaint hidden inside the grand historical setting.
• Notice how the artwork reinforces the joke through costume, pose, and expression.
• Compare Grandad’s version with the genuine event for an extra layer of humour.

Bad Grandad proves that historical accuracy is not always the most important part of a history lesson. Sometimes the finest educational service a fictional grandparent can provide is showing exactly why facts should be checked before they are repeated.

Explore Andy Fanton’s comic archive, meet more of his eccentric creations, and give Bad Grandad’s lessons the careful scrutiny they absolutely fail to deserve.