Grandpa Joe spent 20 years sharing a bed with 3 other people in a poor household, while Charlie (and I presume one or two other members of the family) worked to provide for the family. Later, when Charlie came home with a golden ticket, Grandpa Joe practically hopped out of bed in excitement, dancing around the room calling it a miracle. This led many viewers to see him as a lazy freeloader who faked a disability to get out of working. However, I believe he didn’t fake anything, and in the context of the story, it really was a miracle.



Here’s the thing: faking or not, he was in bed for 20 years. That’s 20 years of Grandpa Joe not using his legs. If his muscles hadn’t fully atrophied by then, he would need at least a week of physical therapy before he would even have a chance of walking again. And for a man that age who doesn’t engage in regular physical activity, “walking” would be more like hobbling weakly over a walker.



So in comes Charlie with a golden ticket, and after a couple pratfalls, Grandpa Joe is skipping around the room with the energy of a healthy man half his age. In order for this to be physically possible, Grandpa Joe would have had to stay fit. He would have to sneak out of that crickety old bed without anybody noticing at least three times a week to keep the blood flowing and prevent muscle atrophy, then sneak back into bed without anybody noticing. I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but if you really want to bring real-world logic into Willy Wonka, then here it is.



Or you could just let it slide, and accept that Grandpa Joe had a real disability, then was miraculously cured by a deity who had other plans for him, because clearly the almighty god of the Willy Wonkaverse, who also created a race of human carrot hybrids to be good at manufacturing chocolate bars, works in mysterious ways.

submitted by [/u/Faisalw117](https://www.reddit.com/user/Faisalw117)

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