Funny / George's Marvellous Medicine

• Quentin Blake's wacky illustrations are especially funny here, particularly with Grandma. Her deranged expressions of shock and euphoria during her transformations are standout examples. "Hallelujah, here I come!" indeed.
• The book opens with George's mother telling him to not cause any mischief while she's away. The narration immediately points out that telling young boys not to get into any trouble will just set them to wondering what kind of trouble they can cause.
• George adds red nail varnish to the medicine, reasoning that if the toothpaste he added earlier doesn't clean his grandma's teeth, at least the nail polish will paint them a prettier color than brown.
• George is repeatedly delighted by the action of spraying aerosol cans; whenever he finds something that comes in a spray can, he tends to add all of it to the medicine.
• Grandma is fond of gin and is allowed a small amount of it every night. George decides to give her a treat and pours the entire bottle into the medicine.
• Many of the animal-related products have silly things printed on their labels.
  • The flea powder for dogs says it will make the dog explode if they eat it. As George was thinking of ways to make his grandma metaphorically explode before deciding to make the medicine, he simply says "Good" as he pours all of it into the medicine. Later, when his father learns of this, he says, "You mean you put flea powder in!?".
  • The horse pills say they're for "hoarse-throated horses". George comments "Grandma may not have a hoarse throat, but she's certainly got a sharp tongue. Maybe it'll cure that instead."
  • The sheep dip says to use one spoonful of dip per gallon of water, as making the mixture any stronger will cause the sheep's wool to fall out and render it naked.
  • The pig pills say that an overdose "will make the pig rock and roll."
• George's reasoning for adding the canary seed is because he thinks it might make Grandma sing.
• Grandma eventually grows tall enough to burst through the ceiling. George comments that she really should stop growing, as his father just repainted the living room.
• George's father sees the giant hen and immediately gets excited. When Grandma yells at him to pay attention to her instead, he barely reacts to his mother-in-law poking out from the roof and tells her to shut up.
• Two of the failed attempts at recreating the Marvelous Medicine result in chickens growing absurdly long legs and necks. George's parents comment that nobody wants to eat those parts of the chicken.
• Marvelous Medicine Number Four causes a hen to shrink to the size of a newly hatched chick. Even the narration points out that the hen looks ridiculous like that.
• George's mother is initially distraught that Grandma got shrunken into oblivion, but by lunch she's accepted that her mother was rather ill-tempered and that what happened was for the best.

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