Grammar Nazi: Difference between revisions

Line 27:

* [[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 ==

Line 35:

Line 34:

* [[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.

== Fan Works ==

* A humorous short ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6414487/1/Sergeant_major_SchoolMarm fic] features a Grammar Ranger—the premise is that Beach Head is getting tired of deciphering poorly written reports, and drags several of his soldiers in for a refresher course.

== 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 ==

Line 62:

Line 58:

* Lionel from ''[[Murder By Death]]'', who continuously corrects Sidney Wang's [[Asian Speekee Engrish]] throughout the film.

== Literature ==

Line 78:

Line 73:

{{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.

== Live-Action TV ==

Line 106:

Line 100:

'''Davos:''' Pardon?

'''Stannis:''' Four ''fewer'' fingernails to clean. }}

== Music ==

Line 116:

Line 109:

* 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.

== New Media ==

* You'll find these people across the internet at times. We'll leave it at that.

== Newspaper Comics ==

Line 128:

Line 119:

* 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 Reardon's Week]]''. Malformed plurals or possessives have been known to send him into ~~histrionics~~. The first life lesson he gives his eight-week-old grandson is: "Now, to the children's section. There's an apostrophe between the N and the S. Remember that and you won't go far wrong."

* Ed Reardon, writer and misanthrope, main character of ''[[Ed Reardon's Week]]''. Malformed plurals or possessives have been known to send him into hysterics. The first life lesson he gives his eight-week-old grandson is: "Now, to the children's section. There's an apostrophe between the N and the S. Remember that and you won't go far wrong."

== 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~~|Seventeen Seventy Six~~]]'' when, of all people, [[John Adams]] raises an objection to the Declaration of Independence, claiming that [[Thomas Jefferson]] used the word 'inalienable' when he should have used "unalienable". Jefferson refused to change it, and Adams withdrew his objection, saying he'd speak to the printer later about it. Funny thing is? [https://web.archive.org/web/20111230050822/http://www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/unalienable.htm He did.]

* Happens in ''[[1776]]'' when, of all people, [[John Adams]] raises an objection to the Declaration of Independence, claiming that [[Thomas Jefferson]] used the word 'inalienable' when he should have used "unalienable". Jefferson refused to change it, and Adams withdrew his objection, saying he'd speak to the printer later about it. Funny thing is? [https://web.archive.org/web/20111230050822/http://www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/unalienable.htm He did.]

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Taken to almost literal extremes in ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]''—upon discovering typo in a newspaper article, Val decides that the best course of action is to ''invade the Information Bureau'' in order to get it fixed.

* 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 ~~theit~~ intelligence or regard to any rules.

* 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 their intelligence or regard to any rules.

== Web Comics ==

Line 175:

Line 163:

== Western Animation ==

* The bookish and [[Adorkable]] Twilight Sparkle in ''[[My Little Pony: ~~Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony~~ Friendship Is Magic]]'' has shades of this occasionally. In [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E24 MMMMystery on the Friendship Express|"MMMystery on the Friendship Express"]] she tries to correct Pinkie Pie talking about a mystery as a "whodunnit" to "who did it", but this only makes Pinkie worse ("who did done dood it").

* The bookish and [[Adorkable]] Twilight Sparkle in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' has shades of this occasionally. In [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E24 MMMMystery on the Friendship Express|"MMMystery on the Friendship Express"]] she tries to correct Pinkie Pie talking about a mystery as a "whodunnit" to "who did it", but this only makes Pinkie worse ("who did done dood it").

== 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:

* 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. }}