She enjoys baking and knitting, and has a fondness for cats. She probably wears a shawl or sweater that she knitted herself, and a long skirt or dress. Her hair is typically either permed and coiffed (similar to the hairstyles popular in her youth), or worn in a Prim and Proper Bun. (She will almost never be seen Letting Her Hair Down, or wearing it in a "pixie" style.) The stories she has to share from her youth will be real wisdom.
Of course, this does not mean that you should underestimate her. Dismiss her as washed-up and outdated and she will prove to you that a lifetime of experience can still beat the brashness of the young, and will not hesitate to give you a good whipping should you misbehave. Whether or not she can actually put up a fight varies. She may need saving, or is just as likely to unexpectedly bring out the big guns.
One does not need to be the main character's actual grandmother to fit this trope. Any elderly person who fits this image can count. Mrs. Claus is often portrayed this way.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Granny Kaoruko from HeartCatch Pretty Cure! who is Cure Flower .
- Aunt Samantha from Tiger & Bunny. And that kills her.
Comic Books
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald Duck's grandmother Elvira Duck (née Coot). Never heard of a Duck character by that name? She is far more well-known as Grandma Duck.
- Fables: Many of the witches, but especially Frau Totenkinder. She's somewhat of a subversion, though, as she's one of the most powerful evil Fables (though evil doesn't mean "antagonistic" here; evil Fables have amnesty so she's pretty much the Token Evil Citizen). Being able to defeat Baba Yaga or a djinn goes a bit beyond Never Mess with Granny.
- Spider-Man: Spider-Man's Aunt May.
- Superman: Superman's Ma Kent.
Comic Strips
- Mrs. Wilson of Dennis the Menace (US) often acts this way. Word of God states that she deeply regrets that she and Mr. Wilson never had kids of their own, causing her to treat Dennis like he was her own grandson.
Fan Works
- In A Green Christmas, the Professor mentions his grandmother was kind, had a good sense of humor and made great cookies.
- Amber Rose, from the RWBY fanfic Various Vytal Ventures sews, bakes, owns cats, and is the maternal (retroactively changed from paternal) grandmother of Ruby Rose... so yeah, she qualifies.
- In the Law & Order: UK story When Love And Hate Collide
, Matt Devlin describes the grandmother who raised him and his sister as one of these:
"Hard as nails, heart of gold. You know the type." - hush now, little one: Aera Jung, Tae-young's grandmother, is kind, bakes cookies, and loves her grandson.
Literature
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Lady Olenna Tyrell (née Redwyne) likes to put up the facade of being a Granny Classic. How successful she is at this is up for debate. She walks with a cane and appears to be near-deaf, though these frailties are suspected by readers to be feigned. It becomes clear in the text that she is likely the brains behind Tyrell political moves, but lets her son (Lord Mace Tyrell) take the stage while she plots behind the curtains.
- Old Nan is this trope played straight. She is no longer able to walk, spends her time knitting, and is full of legends and myths of the smallfolk that, in most instances, appears to be quite accurate.
- Nanny Ogg of Discworld likes to present herself as one of these, albeit one who is a bit of a Dirty Old Woman at times, in order to balance out her friend Granny Weatherwax's scary old woman image. It also makes Nanny a much more effective witch as people tend to trust the kindly old grandma, and makes the times she has to be stern and scary all the more effective for the contrast.
- Doug's grandmother and great-grandmother in Dandelion Wine are a quintessential example of this trope.
- In E. D. Baker's The Wide-Awake Princess novel Unlocking the Spell, Granny Bentbone looks the part, which prevents Annie from recognizing her for a moment. She's the witch from Hansel and Gretel, but while staying at Mother Hubbard's, she is under the influence of Mother Hubbard's powerful magic that keeps everyone kind and peacable in her cottage. Annie hurried out before she breaks the spell.
- In The Dresden Files, the two most powerful and ancient of The Fair Folk, Mother Summer and Mother Winter, take the form of old women and live together in an unassuming cottage deep in the Land of Faerie. Summer being the lighter and friendlier side of the faeries, Mother Summer is the very archetype of the wise and motherly granny. Mother Winter is the classic crone, tending more toward Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!, but scarier. As powerful as they are, though, these manifestations are steeped in symbolism and are certainly just A Form You Are Comfortable With.
- The humor book ''The Portable Italian Mama'' describes this person as "the PC grandma."
- Zigzagged for the granny in Gangsta Granny: She has false teeth, makes sweaters her grandson doesn't like, doesn't know what Google is, but she did tell the story about being a jewel thief. It turns out to be a lie, but she's still quite an Action Girl.
- Claudia's grandmother, Mimi, from The Baby-Sitters Club. She is the perfect grandmother who not only understands Claudia when her parents don't, but acts as a Parental Substitute for Mary Anne as well, as her mother died when she was a baby. Aside from occasionally wearing a kimono for formal occasions, she also fits the hobby stereotypes— Claudia notes at one point that she has been dying to teach someone to knit, but since Claudia and her sister aren't interested, she's ecstatic when it turns out Mary Anne is.
Live-Action TV
- Fawlty Towers: The two loyal and dotty old ladies, Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, who live at the hotel, and almost take a grandmotherly role towards Basil. This is especially noticeable in "The Builders", when they talk very sweetly to Basil, holding his hands. In "Communication Problems", they try to be helpful to the irascible Mrs Richards.
- Our Miss Brooks: Mrs. Davis is often portrayed this way; she's kind, loves to cook, sews and knits, and has a pet cat named Minerva. In The Movie Grand Finale she's responsible the marriage of Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton
- True Blood's Adele Stackhouse.
- Subverted by The Mighty Boosh, in "Nanageddon".
- Mother Winslow from Family Matters.
- Sheldon Cooper's Texan Meemaw in The Big Bang Theory. Though she was much different during Sheldon's childhood.
Video Games
- The original kind of grandmas and the grandma's grandmas in Cookie Clicker
"A nice grandma to bake more cookies."
- Fallout: New Vegas has Lily Bowen, a Supermutant who was mutated when she was already a grandmother. As such, her default personality is that of a gentle and affectionate old woman despite being a massive blue-skinned mutant. Unfortunately she's also a schizophrenic with a Superpowered Evil Side she refers to as "Leo" who comes out if she's sufficiently damaged that serves as her violent side.
- Granny In Paradise is a small video game about such a lady, featuring various "old people" phrases as PC chatter.
- Link's Grandma in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. She takes care of Link and his sister, plays pranks on him and cooks Link's favorite food, a soup that doubles his strength.
- Lavender's maternal grandmother, Grandma Lancaster, in Love & War fits this trope to a T, except for the cats.
- In Potion Permit, Mariele is a kindly old lady who's sometimes seen knitting and likes baking cookies.
- In Stardew Valley, Evelyn introduces herself with "You can call me 'Granny' if you like", and signs all her letters as such. She sends you baked goods by post and hopes they didn't crumble, throws tea parties, and waxes nostalgic about her younger days at every village gathering. She's clearly embraced the role.
- Parodied with Mouthpiece in Toontown: Corporate Clash. Since she's a robot with her head modeled after an old wall telephone (the ones that look like they have a face), she's portrayed as an old-timey grandmother who knits, bakes cookies, and asks why you haven't called her. Notably, she's one of the less hostile managers.
Web Comics
- Grand Ma: Hoang is a grandmother-figure to Minh. She treats Minh as a surrogate child, including making them their favourite meal when they're down and comforting them after a bad a day at work.
- Muted: The current LeRoux Matriach loves showing off pictures of her grandchildren, making cookies, and is a great comforter.
Web Original
- The SCP Foundation has SCP-1911, a group of humanoid monsters resembling this trope. They attempt to force their way into the homes of single men and mother them in the traditional grandmotherly way, and will usually end up accidentally causing their charge's death. Luckily, they're still just as strong as normal elderly women and show no ill will to people who tell them off.
SCP-1911: Well, gramma forgot about the kettle, and… One thing led to another, and Roddy just went ahead and made me leave, and wouldn't you know it? His house caught fire. Oh, gramma felt so awful about that…
Western Animation
- Courage the Cowardly Dog's Muriel, a kindly old lady who takes in the titular abandoned pup... And has to be saved from the various horrors threatening her farm every episode.
- This is Mom's public persona on Futurama. Behind closed doors, she's a super-skinny bitter old crone.
- Granny from the Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird segments of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, who's also Never Mess with Granny when pushed.
- There was one on an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius named Grandma Taters, who had a Television show but was really an alien trying to take over Retroville through mass hypnosis. Also played straight with Granny Neutron.
- June's Ah Mah from The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, though she's also a Retired Badass.
- Grandma Squarepants in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Grandma's Kisses".
- Mother Nature and Nanny Smurf in The Smurfs (1981).
- Granny Smith in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- Doug:
- An episode has Doug's maternal grandmother coming for a visit. Before she arrives he has an Imagine Spot which portrays her as your classic grandma, sitting in her rocker, knitting socks for everyone, but when she really arrives the first words out of her mouth are:
- His grandma on his dad's side plays this trope straight.
- Big Hero 6: The Series Plays with this trope. The Grandmother in question is an elderly supervillain dubbed Supersonic Sue. She has a penchant for committing crimes using modified rollerskates. That said, She absolutely adores her Nephew Supersonic Stu. She makes him a giant onesie to wear, Builds him a gigantic destructive rollerskate car to play in, makes him cookies and constantly tries to teach him to Do Wrong, Right.
- Molly of Denali: Molly's deceased Grandma Catherine looks like a typical grandma, as she wears a yellow dress with a pink cardigan with a floral pattern. She is also nurturing, as she is said to have helped delivered tons of babies.
