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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''I hate these word crimes!''|[["Weird Al" Yankovic]]|Word Crimes}}
Somewhere along the line, Grammar Nazis got more into the form than the content. They sometimes leave snarky little notes in discussion areas about the correct use of italics or where the apostrophe goes in "its/it's." They don't actually add any new
▲Somewhere along the line, Grammar Nazis got more into the form than the content. They sometimes leave snarky little notes in discussion areas about the correct use of italics or where the apostrophe goes in "its/it's." They don't actually add any new content -- except possibly passive-aggressive "help" articles on proper usage of the semicolon. At their worst, they are known for insisting on "rules of English" which are derived from French and other Latin-descended languages, and were invented for the sole purpose of annoying English-speakers. They'll also likely become a [[Serial Tweaker]], careful to quickly correct their own mistakes. (We hope.)
For example, the French faction believe one is never to split infinitives because Latin and many other European languages cannot. [[Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With|Ending a sentence with a preposition]] is also something they will not tolerate, even if it invariably leads to awkward or confusing renderings.
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Be careful when and how you accuse someone of being a Grammar Nazi, because doing so is, by definition, an automatic invocation of [[Godwin's Law]]. Being a Grammar Nazi can occasionally be a good thing, especially when [[Illiteracy Communist (Darth Wiki)|Illiteracy Communists]] are utterly mangling the English language. And when you do so, don't misspell "Grammar" (like the trope image did). This isn't ''[[Frasier]]''. (Or ''[[Greek]]''.)
Often, people will be accused of being Grammar Nazis by someone who simply cannot grasp simple second-grade English concepts, such as confusing "you're" for "your". Even worse, a Grammar Nazi will jump all over people who use grammar that is technically incorrect but that [[Reality Is Unrealistic|seems correct because
But of course, some people -- [[Godwin's Law]] or not
Also, you might want to use the term "Grammar Police" around [[You Keep Using That Word|those more easily offended]], but that street runs both ways. In many cases the person being criticised is fairly justified in attacking the Grammar Nazi right back; we all make mistakes and there are plenty of dyslexics and dyspraxics on the internet - not to mention all the people who aren't quite as keen on your pedantic crusade, nor with your fixation on "Ten Items Or Less" signs.
Compare [[You Make Me Sic]].
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* [[Orson Welles]] became one when he did a voiceover commercial for [[wikipedia:Frozen Peas|frozen peas]].
* "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should," was attacked by Grammar Nazis for using "like" instead of "as." A subsequent campaign asked, "What do you want, good grammar or good taste?"
== Comic Books ==
* Herr Starr, from ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', who destroys a subordinate's report with a handgun for [
* Yorick from ''[[Y: The Last Man|Y the Last Man]]'' is an English major and as such, often points out others grammatical mistakes and even his own on occasion. An especially nice example is when he tells a journalist that she splits more infinitives than Gene Roddenberry.
* Minor ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villain Spellcheck is such a stickler for grammar, syntax, and usage that he, inspired by the letter and punctuation themed Typeface, puts on a costume and beats people up over it. He goes after Spider-Man because the hyphen in his name is unnecessary.
* [[Lobo]] had once been captured by Grammar Nazis who forced him into a competition to see if he would be allowed to join them in their crusade to cleanse language from error (and exterminate malapropers). It ended when Lobo tried to get his grade school teacher out of the competition, only for her to reveal he had cut her legs and them preparing to kill him by shooting... And removing him from the gas trap that was keeping him at bay. No Grammar Nazi survived the encounter.
* The [[Green Lantern]] miniseries ''Emerald Dawn 2'' shows Sinestro correcting the syntax of people he's beating down back when he's Hal Jordan's Corps-appointed mentor.
* Andy Fox of the comic strip ''[[FoxTrot]]'' has been known to rant at her children for using improper grammar. In one strip she explains to her older son that she couldn't help correcting him because, as an English major, she believes that proper grammar is important.▼
* Rose Gumbo from ''[[Rose Is Rose]]'' is shown to be this in a few strips.▼
* Someone once asked Lemont of ''[[Candorville (Comic Strip)|Candorville]]'' who died and made him the grammar police. He responded that he was actually being the idiom police.▼
* Joe's mother from ''[[Jump Start]]''.▼
* The [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/StrunkAndPtah 6 October 2011] ''[[Non Sequitur (comic strip)|Non Sequitur]]'' features a nonsensical version of this trope in ancient Egypt.▼
== Fan Works ==
* A humorous short ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6414487/1/Sergeant_major_SchoolMarm fic] features a Grammar
== Films -- Animation ==
* In ''[[Beavis and Butthead]] Do America'', the detective pursuing the eponymous pair chastises his underling for ending a sentence in a preposition. The underling later struggles to reform his sentences to avoid this (apocryphal) rule.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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* Lionel from ''[[Murder By Death]]'', who continuously corrects Sidney Wang's [[Asian Speekee Engrish]] throughout the film.
{{quote|''"Pronounce your goddamn pronouns!"''}}
== Literature ==
* Lassic Wert in ''[[Felsic Current]]'' is a
* Avril Incandenza of [[David Foster Wallace]]'s ''[[Infinite Jest]]'' made her ''career'' out of this, leading a wave of linguistic prescription including ''riots'' over the damned thing, incorporating rigorous education in English grammar in the [[Elaborate University High|Enfield Tennis Academy]] curriculum (which in fairness is based on the medieval ''trivium'' and ''quadrivium'', which ''did'' include [Latin] grammar), and leading a group called the Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts, whose primary activity seems to be hassling supermarkets over "10 items or less" signs on express lanes ("It should be 10 items or ''fewer''!")
** This is likely an [[Write Who You Know|exaggeration of his own mother]], a community-college English professor who raised her children with songs about grammar mistakes and pretending to go into a coughing fit whenever one of them used a solecism (which Wallace in retrospect admitted was rather chilling). On the other hand, she never got ''nearly'' as grammar-crazy (much less anything else-crazy) as [[Stepford Smiler|Avril Incandenza]]...
* Josephine Anwhistle from ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' is a perfect example of a typical Grammar Nazi, going so far as to pointing out Sunny Baudelaire's utterances as nonsense even if she's yet to speak coherently. Played with somewhat in that she uses bad grammar to relay a secret message to the Baudelaires. Unfortunately she corrects the [[Axe Crazy]] villain's grammar as well...
* Most members on the noble side of mysterious organization V.F.D. are revealed to be this, in ''[[Lemony Snicket:
{{quote|''To My Kind Editor,''
''Please rewrite another editor's note to read as follows:''
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{{quote|''But those were times when, to forget an evil world, grammarians took pleasure in abstruse questions. I was told that in that period, for fifteen days and fifteen nights, the rhetoricians Gabundus and Terentius argued on the vocative of "ego", and in the end they attacked each other, with weapons.''}}
* "The Eyes Have It" is a short comedy by [[Philip K. Dick]] where [[The Narrator]] believes Earth is infiltrated by aliens after reading a line in a novel in which a character's eyes "moved about the room". References to characters having "no brains" or "no spine" only [[Bizarre Alien Biology|reinforce his apprehension]]. In the end however the protagonist decides not to do anything about the [[Alien Invasion]]. He doesn't have the stomach for it.
* Lion Feuchtwanger, in his realistic fiction novel ''[[The Oppermanns]]'', repeatedly insults the grammar of ''[[Mein Kampf|My Battle]]'' and on at least one occasion insults the grammar of "nationalist" (i.e. Nazi) newspapers. Lion doesn't assert that crappy grammar is ubiquitous among Nazis, as the character Dr. Vogelsang is said to have good grammar (except when he's quoting other Nazis). Also the character Rector François is fussy about grammar.
== Live-Action TV ==
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'''Davos:''' Pardon?
'''Stannis:''' Four ''fewer'' fingernails to clean. }}
== Music ==
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* On a mid-'90s [[Alvin and The Chipmunks]] country collaboration album, Simon is paired with Aaron Tippin to sing Tippin's "There Ain't Nothing Wrong with the Radio". When Simon starts singing, he corrects the grammar "flaws" on the fly, but eventually, Aaron gets him to lighten up on the Grammar Nazism.
* It may be apocryphal (although I think they've told it themselves on at least one occasion), but there's a story that Neil Tennant of [[Pet Shop Boys]] used to return fan mail with all the grammar and spelling errors meticulously corrected. As he used to edit magazines for a living, this kind of makes sense...
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc "Word Crimes"] by [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] is three minutes and forty-six seconds of ranting at stupid grammar errors and the people who make them.
== Newspaper Comics ==
▲* Andy Fox of the comic strip ''[[FoxTrot]]'' has been known to rant at her children for using improper grammar. In one strip she explains to her older son that she couldn't help correcting him because, as an English major, she believes that proper grammar is important.
▲* Rose Gumbo from ''[[Rose Is Rose]]'' is shown to be this in a few strips.
▲* Someone once asked Lemont of ''[[
▲* Joe's mother from ''[[Jump Start]]''.
▲* The [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/StrunkAndPtah 6 October 2011] ''[[Non Sequitur (comic strip)|Non Sequitur]]'' features a nonsensical version of this trope in ancient Egypt.
== Radio ==
* Ed Reardon, writer and misanthrope, main character of ''[[Ed
== Theater ==
* "[[Sarcasm Mode|Poor]] [[Jerkass|Professor]] [[He-Man Woman Hater|Higgins]]" from ''[[Pygmalion]]'' is a [[Deconstruction]] of this trope. Once the [[Rags to Riches|impoverished flower girl, Eliza]], completes his [[Tough Love]] program, she leaves him.
* Happens in ''[[1776 (musical)|
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Taken to almost literal extremes in ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]''
* In [[Risen|Risen 2: Dark Waters]] gnome leader is this of all peo.. err, individuals. When learning human language he put so much effort in this that he got the rules better than pretty much all the humans (including the main hero) and is condtanlty correcting the conversation partner on proper use of gramar (again, including the main character which drives him nuts). It stands out especially hard since gnomes in general do not speak human language at all and are not known for
== Web Comics ==
*
*
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has The [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090714.html North American Grammar Squirrel
* ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' has, as always, its own [http://www.pbfcomics.com/
* Meanwhile, in absolute obscurity, the Fairy of Good Grammar from ''[[Spelling the Vacuum]]'', whose grammar powers tie the universe together.
*
* Xykon, the [[Evil Sorcerer]] lich from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', can be this too. Mostly about [[Psmith Psyndrome|how his name is spelled]], but not exclusively (although it should be noted that Xykon has killed people for less):
{{quote|'''Tsukiko:''' We need a new Head Executioner, you know. Xykon killed the last one for spelling "guillotine" wrong on his daily reports.}}
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Mr. Raven is [http://egscomics.com/?date=2008-04-18 presented] and [http://egscomics.com/?date=2008-06-20 referenced] as one, and his Hitler Forelock does not help his case at all.
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' parodied this with Grammer[sic] Gorilla, who attempts to be a
* ''[[Ozy and Millie]]'': As Millie puts it, she "just invaded Grammar Czechoslovakia and duped Grammar Neville Chamberlain, and now it's on to Grammar Poland and Grammar World Conquest!". Ozy proceeds by calling her an Analogy Nazi.
* Grammar is just one of the many things that makes Butch of ''[[Chopping Block]]'' completely flip out. [http://choppingblock.keenspot.com/d/20090505.html Case in point.]
* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0324.html the use of contractions calls for abuse.]
* ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'' got [http://nonadventures.com/2011/09/24/please-grammar-dont-hurt-em/ Dr. Shark].
== Web Original ==
* A [[College Humor]] pastiche of ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' shows that some Grammar Nazis are, in fact, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100527212445/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1935115 actual Nazis].
{{quote|'''LaPadite:''' There was no Jews here.
'''Landa:''' Jew, or Jews, plural?
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* From a 1997 issue of ''[[The Onion]]'': [http://www.theonion.com/articles/nations-educators-alarmed-by-poorly-written-teen-s,1007/ Nation's Educators Alarmed By Poorly Written Teen Suicide Notes]
* "Psychic Powers", a video by [[Shiny Objects Videos|ShinyObjects]], sees Curly enforcing grammar rules via the titular powers.
== Western Animation ==
* The bookish and [[Adorkable]] Twilight Sparkle in ''[[My Little Pony:
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''; in the episode "New York's Shiniest", robot policeman Rex-1 apprehends two crooks:
{{quote|'''Rex-1:''' You are charged for disturbing the peace...
'''Fat crook:''' Put us down, you hunk of tin!
'''Rex-1:''' ...resisting arrest...
'''Thin crook:''' You ain't never gettin' away with this!
'''Rex-1:''' ...''and'' [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking| using a double negative]].}}
== Real Life ==
* The aptly named Kelsey Grammer (TV's ''[[Frasier]]'') says when he talks to people he often stops the conversation to correct them on the proper use of the English language.
* Similarly, the late [[The Odd Couple|Tony Randall]] corrected the host's grammar in at least one appearance on ''[[The Hollywood Squares]]''.
* From ''Hannity & Colmes'':
{{quote|'''Sean Hannity:''' What I said was that your opinion was thoughtless, what you wrote was crude, and mean, and hateful.
'''[[Christopher Hitchens]]:''' And then you took up all the time for my answer with your long, rather unlettered questioning. }}
* This kind of behaviour is not limited to English speakers. Germans ''love'' it, to the point that there's even a ''bestselling'' series of books (called "''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod''") dealing with all kinds of grammar and spelling errors occurring in everyday German. But beware not to use the exact term in front of the average German (not even necessarily towards him!) ever. [[Never Live It Down|Germans regard the issue as much too serious to even think of using the term jokingly.]]
** Rudolf Hess edited Adolf Hitler's memoir ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', making him a Nazi grammar Nazi.
**This behaviors is also pretty common in Spanish countries, where spelling mistakes run rampant. The Spanish-speakers have also coined an equivalent term, "Talibán Ortográfico", lit "spelling taliban".
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Wiki Tropes]]
[[Category:Grammar Nazi]]▼
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
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