History Main / YouMakeMeSic

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[[caption-width-right:300: [[HypocriticalHumor Dat'l lern 'umm!]]]]

->''"I see that you have made three spelling mistakes."''
-->-- '''Marquis de Favras''' ([[DissonantSerenity commenting on]] his own death warrant)

A gag where a character corrects another's spelling or [[GrammarNazi grammar]] in a context where you wouldn't usually expect it. A common setup is when a note (either of [[ObliviousToLove love]] or [[DoWrongRight insult]]) is sent to someone, only to have it come back with all the spelling mistakes highlighted, or for extra hubris, notes like "See me" as if from a teacher, as this is the inevitable result [[TeacherStudentRomance whenever a student attempts to write a love note to their teacher]].

This is also a common tactic used by butlers and upscale servicefolk to distract a hysterical guest.

On the flipside of showing intelligence, this trope can also be used to show that someone is ComicallyMissingThePoint. Also, fairly often, the "grammatical error" will be more of a point of style that's [[ArtisticLicenseLinguistics not actually considered incorrect grammar]] by anyone ''but'' pedants (such as that prepositions are bad things [[HypocriticalHumor to end sentences with]].[[note]]This is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put![[/note]]) -- writers who really want to [[ShownTheirWork Show Their Work]] may have the corrected party reply [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescriptivism to that effect.]] Less often, the "error" might actually be technically correct, but this will only be known to really hardcore grammarians.[[note]]For example, "that'll learn 'em" actually comes from an archaic meaning of the verb "to learn" which means "to teach".[[/note]]

Do this on a forum, and the comeback is likely to be "GrammarNazi". Or "[[RougeAnglesOfSatin grammer nazee]]", as the case may be. Or perhaps, "[[AlliterativeName Grammar Gestapo]]", if you will. Responding that you were correcting their spelling and not their grammar is [[SchmuckBait just asking for it]].

The trope name is a [[JustForPun pun]]; the word "sic"[[note]]Literally Latin for "thus", as in "found thus". Sometimes [[FunWithAcronyms Backronymed]] as "spelling is correct" or "spelled in context".[[/note]] is used in quotation and transcription to indicate that a (supposed) spelling or grammatical mistake was made by the original writer/speaker, not the person quoting/transcribing them.

Compare YouKeepUsingThatWord, when the nitpicking is over word choice instead of grammar/spelling. Related to DoWrongRight. Not to be mistaken for YouMakeMeSick.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* A Swedish PSA featured a man correcting a bathroom graffiti, reading "Robert är kuk" [Robert is cock] to "Robert är en kuk" [Robert is a dick], while awkwardly leaning over a guy standing next to him at a urinal.
* An American PSA had a guy who changes who to who''m'' on some spray-painted wall graffiti.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In the third volume of ''Manga/{{Dramacon}}'', Christy has been writing flowery lovelorn prose on her blog for several months after seeing Matt (who she has feelings for, and vice versa) at [=Yatta!Con=]. He then contacts her out of the blue to tell her she spelled a word wrong 'in today's post'. Christy's OhCrap reaction has to be seen to be believed.
* Is a RunningGag throughout ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', with Kenshin writing down important notes to his comrades during important battle intermissions, but his friends always comment on his poor handwriting first. The first time it shows up in the manga, Kaoru [[BreakingTheFourthWall says Kenshin's handwriting]] [[SelfDeprecation is as bad as]] [[Creator/NobuhiroWatsuki Watsuki's]].
* Meta example: try talking about ''Manga/FairyTail'' on a message board without someone telling you it's spelled T-A-L-E.[[note]]For context, the eponymous guild is named because of the ongoing question as to whether fairies have tails, "an eternal mystery and an eternal adventure," so the "Tail" spelling is deliberate.[[/note]]
* In the first full episode of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' that reintroduces Chibi-Usa, when the Sailors get the message that Chibi-Usa has returned for training to be a Sailor Senshi, they read the letter, then proceed to tear apart Neo-Queen Serenity's grammar, noting that even in the far-flung future when she rules the world, Usagi ''still'' has poor writing skills.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', the [[TheMafia Martillo Family]]'s resident HumanoidAbomination, [[spoiler:Ronnie Schiatto]], decides to interrupt a top-secret FBI briefing to point out that they spelled his [[TheDon Don]]'s name wrong in the case files. {{Omniscience}} tends to make one sensitive to spelling errors.
* A RunningGag on ''Anime/MyHime'' is that Haruka Suzushiro is frequently using {{Malaproper}}s both spoken and written. Her long suffering assistant (who also secretly pines for her) Yukino Kikukawa has to frequently fix or correct Haruka's mistakes. She did it again in her final scene in the finale.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* In Season 2 episode 32 of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', Careless S. receives a mysterious notice saying that the other heroes have turned against him. Later in the episode, Happy S., Sweet S., and Smart S. find that note, and Smart S. quips that it should look suspicious just from reading it because... it has two spelling mistakes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Played seriously in the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' arc "The Other", where Peter interrupts Ezekiel's speech about his role in the grand scheme of things to correct a grammatical error, simply to show that he doesn't care. Said error was a reference to the voice-over intro to the first ''Film/XMen1'' film.
-->'''Ezekiel:''' The Ashanti have stories of a Spider-Man that go back centuries. You could look it up. You can't deny that, it's an historical fact, it--\\
'''Peter:''' A historical fact.\\
'''Ezekiel:''' What?\\
'''Peter:''' It's ''an'' if you can't hear the H, it's ''a'' if you can. ''An'' hour, ''a'' horse. It's a common mistake made by people who want to impress other people by--\\
'''Ezekiel:''' ''(annoyed) Who's telling this story, me or you? I'm trying to explain that one way or another, whether it was intended or you backed into it, you've tapped into something old, something important!''
** Also on several occasions, when a villain would call Spider-Man [[PitifulWorms "bug" or "insect"]], Spider-Man would reply, "Please, spiders are arachnids!"
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/XMen'' when Cyclops asks Sinister why he talks about Scott's brotherS. [[BlatantLies Sinister claimed it was a grammatical error]].
* Continuity-loving writers will occasionally hook [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]] up with grammar-correction jokes. These are nods to the character's Bronze Age backstory, when Carol Danvers was a bestselling author and a magazine editor.
* In issue #5 of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' (Gold Key, March 1972), the adaptation of the Inspector cartoon "Le Quiet Squad" has this exchange (the story had the Inspector charged with keeping the Commissioner from being disturbed from noise):
-->'''Sgt. Deux Deux:''' (''slamming a door open'') Inspector! I've seen something you may be interested in!\\
'''Inspector:''' Sergeant! How many times must I tell you... (''he and Deux Deux run upstairs'') ''never'' end a sentence with a preposition! You should have said "in which you may be interested"!\\
'''Deux Deux:''' (''resignedly'') Si.
* This is seen scrawled on a pub's bathroom stall in ''Comicbook/SuburbanGlamour'', where Dave overhears a classmate of his complaining about failing to seduce Astrid after giving her a spiked drink.
-->''You're Mum''\\
''It's 'your', you idiot.''
* In the French comic ''Les Profs'' (''The Teachers''), the gorgeous French teacher accepts a date from an obnoxious guy who keeps making grammar mistakes, only to turn it into a grammar lesson. In another strip, she doubles back to a fuel station after a couple of miles to fix an error on a sign there, apologetically explaining to the attendant that she can't help herself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': A soldier is shot with an arrow with a note tied to it. His friend only remarks: "Ha! The idiots spelled 'surrender' with only one 'r'!"
* ''ComicStrip/TheLockhorns'': "I didn't save Leroy's old love letters... I returned them with the spelling corrected."
* ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'': Sarge and Beetle stop at a "DOUGNUT" shop and point out the missing H. As they leave with a bag of donuts, the seller muses that [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity he's got more business since removing the H]].
* In ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'', Andy Fox is prone to this.
** In one strip, she even explains to her son Peter that she does it because, as an English major and professional writer, she values proper use of the language. He replies, "You're coming through real clear." (Andy: "Obviously not.")
** In another case, she objects to Jason playing ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' due to it teaching unhealthy lessons, such as violence being entertainment, that winners should show no mercy to their enemies and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking spelling "combat" with a "K"]]. Jason's response is that he ''knows'' [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne "combat" isn't spelled with a "K"]].
* A series of ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' strips had Connie trying to work on her novel, but Jeremy kept interrupting her. Finally, she put a notice on her door stating that she was not to be disturbed except in certain conditions, such as an injury resulting in copius loss of blood. Jeremy looks at the note, then knocks on the door to tell her that she mis-spelled "copious."
* In a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' strip, Charlie Brown watches as Sally writes the word "Deer" on a sheet of paper. Assuming she is writing a letter, he corrects her, advising that the proper spelling is "D-e-a-r." Without a word, she continues to write a sentence about deer, leading ol' Chuck to apologize profusely as Sally upbraids him for making rash assumptions. Once her brother leaves the room, however, she crumples and discards the paper, takes a fresh sheet, and begins writing "Dear Grandma..."
* In one strip that appeared in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'', a stereotypical nerd comes across a sign saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The nerd then pulls out a pen, and proceeds to fix the grammar, so it says, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." As he's walking away, the sign suddenly falls off the wall, and crashes to the ground.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': After meeting the managers of their favorite arcade game centre Shinji and Asuka try to pick some French sentences. Asuka does not get it quite right, though:
-->'''Asuka''': C'est dur. Je fais beaucoup errr...d'efforts. Je remercie vous. ''[It is hard. I'm making many, errr...efforts. I you thank (I thank you).]''\\
'''Guillaume:''' ''[applauding]'' Not bad! Except for the thanks. It's 'je vous remercie'. You just got the words the wrong way.\\
'''Asuka''': Damn! I'll never get it right!
* ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'': In chapter 8 Shinji says Asuka "Ich leibe Sie," (meaning to say "I love you"). He leans to kiss her but he stops because she is stifling a chuckle. Then she teaches him the correct words ("Ich liebe dich") and kisses him.
* ''[[http://ficwad.com/story/111073 Snorkacks: Redux]]'':
-->Again, Snape had tried to take points but Harry silently handed his wand to [=McGonagall=]. She performed ‘Priori Incantatum’ and discovered the last three spells he’d performed were a levitation spell, a mouth freshening charm, and an erasing charm with the words ‘Foulmouth the Great, led the gorblin rebellion of 1185’. Smirking, she returned the wand and suggested a spelling tutor.
* Inverted in the fanfic ''This Means War'', Hermione (and Ron when he finds out) takes it upon herself to write Harry's homework, because he is busy with the fight against Voldemort. However, as Snape puts it, while she manages to imitate Harry's handwriting and style perfectly, she does not dumb her writing down enough - apparently, Harry has never used the word 'whom' in his essays, and would not use 'discombobulate' when 'confuse' was also available.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* Correcting pronunciation, but... ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'':
-->'''Randall:''' Where is it, you little one-eyed cretin (creh-tin)?\\
'''Mike:''' Okay, first of all, it's "cree-tin"[[labelnote:note]]Except in British dialects, where it's [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting the other way around]].[[/labelnote]]. If you're going to threaten me, do it properly.
* In a RunningGag, the two FBI Agents in ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'', Agent Flemming and Bork, go through this throughout the movie. It culminates in a case of NotNowKiddo that results in Agent Bork giving up and just ''pointing'' at what he wants to say.
* Towards the end of ''WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank2016'', the confrontation between Nefarious and Qwark gets sidetracked when Qwark delivers a lame one-liner and Nefarious would rather yell at him about how it makes no sense than actually fight him.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', during the "Zero To Hero" sequence, Clio and Thalia fight over the pronunciation of "vase":
-->'''Thalia:''' And they slapped his face/ On every ''vay-se''...\\
'''Clio:''' ''[bonks Thalia in the head]'' On every '''''vah-se!'''''\\
''[Thalia jams the vase over Clio's head]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'', a Roman centurion, catching Brian in an act of writing anti-Roman graffiti, makes him correct his Latin grammar at sword point. Then he makes Brian write it out 100 times -- ''all over the walls of the palace!''
-->'''Centurion:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8 Domus?? Nominative???]]
* From the Marx Brothers' ''Theatre/AnimalCrackers'':
-->'''Zeppo:''' ''[as Jamison, taking diction from Groucho]'' Gentlemen. Question mark.\\
'''Groucho:''' ''[as Captain Spaulding]'' Gentlemen, question MARK?! Put it on the penultimate, not on the dipthonic! You should brush up on your Greek, Jamison. Well, get a Greek and brush up on him.
* ''Film/CanadianBacon'':
** The protagonists spray "Canada sucks!" and other anti-Canadian insults on the side of their truck and are pulled over by a member of the Ontario Provincial Police who then -- because Canada is officially bilingual -- forces them to also spray it in French.
** In an earlier scene, the heroes escape when the Mounties that confront them stop to discuss how to rephrase a sentence to avoid [[PrepositionsAreNotToEndSentencesWith ending it with a preposition]].
* In ''Film/TakeTheMoneyAndRun'', Virgil attempts to rob a bank, and he fails because the tellers have difficulty reading past the spelling errors in his hold-up note, which says to "abt natural" because he has a "gub" pointed at them. The bank tellers even debate on whether he actually misspelled gun or if they just don't notice that the B is actually a C or N, and ask other people what they think, including a ''police officer''.
* ''Film/ThePostman'': "You spelled 'tyranny' wrong."
* ''Film/FindingForrester'':
** A more serious version occurs in the film: lead character Jamal accidentally drops his writing journal near the apartment of [[{{Hikikomori}} reclusive]] writer William Forrester. Forrester sends the journal back to him with corrections and criticisms.
** Then there's the scene where Jamal corrects the teacher's incorrect usage of farther/further.
** William also criticizes Jamal's use of conjunctions at the beginning of paragraphs. Jamal retorts that this is actually a valid usage that has emerged during Forrester's time as a recluse (when you want to add emphasis or call attention to a point).
* ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'': "The word is 'unalienable,' not 'inalienable.'" "I'm sorry, Mr. Adams, but 'inalienable' is correct." This after the huge fight over slavery. Something similar must have happened in real-life events. Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence clearly shows the word "inalienable," but by the time the document had reached the printer, it had been changed to "unalienable."
* A variation in ''Theatre/TheHistoryBoys'': "Hector would like that -- '[[TeacherStudentRomance your sucking me off]]'. Hector likes gerunds." %%and yes, Grammar Nazis, that "your" is correct in context.
* In ''Film/{{Secretary}}'', Mr. Grey's edits of Lee's misspellings and typos actually become a method through which they [[spoiler:have dominant-submissive S&M encounters.]]
* In ''Film/{{Amreeka}}'', Fadi, a recent immigrant from the Middle East, leaves school with his cousin and finds out that someone has graffitied their car with "Al-Kada". One of them points out they didn't even spell it right.
* In ''Film/HighSchoolHigh'', a parody of ''Film/DangerousMinds'', Jon Lovitz plays a High School English teacher in a very bad school. In one scene, while facing the blackboard, he asks the students for a sample sentence so he can point out the various parts of speech. A gangbanger pokes his head in the door and delivers a death threat in fairly heavy Ebonics. Lovitz's character [[ComicallyMissingThePoint mistakes it for a suggestion]], and writes it out on the board. He immediately begins correcting the grammar, to the confusion of the gangbanger who threatened him. After a few attempts to make simple changes, Lovitz gives up and says "This is just poor syntax."
* In ''Film/KissKissBangBang'', Harmony corrects Harold when he says "I feel badly" instead of "I feel bad". Harold doesn't understand and instead what he takes away from this is that an adverb should never follow a verb. It doesn't go over well when Perry says "sleep badly" and Harold tells him he means "bad" when in fact "badly" is correct in that context.
* In ''Film/FindingNeverland'', Michael asks if they can "have Uncle Jim for dinner." His mother corrects him with "Have him ''over'' for dinner. We aren't cannibals."
* While Doctor Claw is interrogating the title character in ''Film/InspectorGadget'', he gets irritated when the Inspector incorrectly conjugates a Spanish verb and corrects him.
* ''Film/WithHonors'': Joe Pesci's character is getting fed up with a Harvard professor's attitude and stands up to leave the lecture hall, asking "which door do I leave from?" When informed that, at Harvard, they don't end their sentences with prepositions, he responds, "all right, which door do I leave from, asshole?"
* In ''Film/ALetterToThreeWives'', high school teacher George Phipps, after having spent an entire evening biting his tongue on the subject, goes on a diatribe in front of his radio scriptwriter wife Rita's sponsors, the Manleighs, about how vacuous and insincere radio is as a medium. Rita cuts him off, and Mrs. Manleigh tells her, "Don't ''you'' feel badly."
-->'''George:''' "'''Bad'''"! Not "badly"! You "feel badly" ''this'' way! ''[holds his hands up and mimes running his fingers over something]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jokes]]
* A German joke:
-->'''Child:''' Mama, Papa hat mir geschlagen! [Mom, Dad hit to me!]\\
'''Mother:''' Nicht "mir", sondern "mich"! [Not "to me", but "me"!]\\
'''Child:''' Was denn, Mama, dir auch? [What, Mom, he's hit to you too?]
* A similar English joke:
-->'''Student:''' Me and her went to the store.\\
'''Teacher:''' She and I.\\
'''Student:''' No, Ma'am. You weren't there.
* Another joke:
-->'''A:''' I just eaten seven sausages.\\
'''B:''' I think you mean "ate".\\
'''A:''' Oh, OK, I just eaten eight sausages. I wasn't keeping count!
* Another joke:
-->'''Teacher:''' Who can give me an example of a sentence beginning with "I"?\\
'''Student:''' I is...\\
'''Teacher:''' Stop! Never put "is" after "I". Always put "am" after "I".\\
'''Student:''' Okay. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.
* Another joke:
-->'''Student:''' 'Scuse me, can you tell me where the law library's at?\\
'''Professor:''' Here at ''Hahvahd'', we don't end our sentences with a preposition.\\
'''Student:''' [[SophisticatedAsHell Oh, I'm sorry. Can you tell me where the law library's at, asshole?]]
* This one overlaps with ComicallyMissingThePoint:
-->''A teacher interested in speaking with her student's parents went to his house. He answered the door, leading to this exchange:''\\
'''Teacher:''' Young man, where are your parents?\\
'''Boy:''' Me mommy and daddy went to the supermarket.\\
'''Teacher:''' Son, where's your grammar?!\\
'''Boy:''' Oh, she's in the kitchen making cookies.
* Another joke ComicallyMissingThePoint:
-->'''Teacher''': Where's your pen?\\
'''Student''': I ain't got one.\\
'''Teacher''': The correct word is "haven't", not "ain't". You haven't got a pen, I haven't got a pen, they haven't got pens.\\
'''Student''': Gee, did someone steal all the pens?
* Classic knock-knock joke:
-->"Knock knock."\\
"Who's there?"\\
"To."\\
"To Who?"\\
"Please, it's 'To Whom'."
** This was also asked by Creator/AlanDavies to Creator/StephenFry on one episode of ''QI''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/FelsicCurrent'', Lassic Wert's [[GrammarNazi habit of correcting people]] sometimes takes him down this road. Case in point:
-->'''Geal:''' I don't like it when you make fun of me and correct me, 'kay? It's one thing to fix my mistakes, but it's another to be so, um, infuratingly desirive about it.\\
'''Lassic:''' It's 'infur-''i''-atingly' and 'de-''ri''-sive.'
* In ''Literature/UpTheDownStaircase'', a student gives a teacher a love letter. Unsure how to act, he treats it as an assignment -- proofreading and correcting it. [[spoiler:The girl is [[DrivenToSuicide Driven to (attempt) Suicide]]]]. The sequence is also retained in the 1967 film adaptation and theatrical adaptation.
* In ''Sixth Grade Secrets'', a boy writes a note to his teacher about how much he hates him (a requirement to join a club), and the teacher publicly tells him his grammar mistakes, and tells him to rewrite it.
* In the young adult novel ''Literature/TheTrueConfessionsOfCharlotteDoyle'', a young, wealthy girl in the 1830s becomes a sailor, discovers the captain of the ship is evil and causes his death (long story). She writes all of this in her diary, which her father reads. This leads to a long lecture about telling lies about the captain, consorting with common sailors, and generally being unladylike and immoral, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ending with]]: "and the spelling, Charlotte. The spelling!"
* The book ''Literature/EatsShootsAndLeaves'' is all about proper grammar, and advocates the creation of what amounts to a guerrilla punctuation-correction squadron.
* In ''Things Can Only Get Better'' by John O'Farrell, the author describes how, as a young Socialist, he went round the walls of his home town spraying "Coal, not Dole." on the walls. Next day he is mocked by his comrades for taking so much time to get the punctuation right.
* In the Book of the Radio Satire Show ''Week Ending Cabinet Leaks'', Carol Thatcher's draft autobiography is covered in blue-pencilled notes from the publisher, which is fair enough. But in the end, they've written "C Minus Minus. Must try harder".
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** In ''Literature/TheTruth'', when William is in the watchhouse cell, he kills time by correcting the spelling in the graffiti.
** The Auditors are always like this, due to BlueAndOrangeMorality. When a character asks if he can offer an Auditor a drink, the Auditor considers the question for a moment, then states that yes, he believes the man is capable of making that offer.
** Subverted in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}''. One character objects that people are hanged, it's dead meat that's hung. The other thanks him for the correction then reiterates that the victim in question was strangled and then hung. [[spoiler: This warped humor is the first hint that this character is the villain of the book.]]
* A book of essays by Creator/JohnScalzi is called ''Your Hate Mail Will be Graded''.
* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': Josephine has just barely managed to convince the ax-crazy villain to let her live. What does she do five seconds later? Well, correcting him on his grammar, of course! He then promptly throws her in a lake full of carnivorous leeches. The writer makes a huge point about Josephine's obsession with grammar and spelling. In fact, the way the kids realise her suicide note isn't sincere is by the large number of spelling and grammar mistakes in it.
* When a bad guy in ''Grave Peril'' tells [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]] that "[[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe I will rip out thy heart!]]" Harry's immediate response is, "It's ''thine'' heart!" [[spoiler:This is also a plot point as the bad guy is masquerading as the ghost of a demon, who would know the proper speech.]]
* In Isabel Allende's ''Literature/TheHouseOfTheSpirits'', Nicolas sends love poems to his girlfriend Amanda.... and she sends them back, with corrections.
* In ''Ramona's World'', Ramona gets an essay back covered with red marks -- all correcting her spelling errors. This leads her to consider her teacher to be a grammar-and-spelling Nazi. Later she tells said teacher that the librarian's license plate is spelled wrong (It says LIBARY rather than LIBRARY) and is disappointed to learn that due to Oregon law, it couldn't be spelled in full. Even ''later'' she and Daisy send a letter to a local business, chastising them on their poor grammar in their newspaper ad.
* In ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'', when Toad learns the Weasels have taken over Toad Hall he snarls "I'll learn 'em to steal my house!" Ratty corrects this, only for Badger to come in on Toad's side:
--> "But we don't ''want'' to teach 'em," replied the Badger. "We want to ''learn'' 'em — learn 'em, learn 'em! And what's more, we're going to ''do'' it, too!"
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Amerei Frey tells of how her father was "hung" by the Brotherhood without Banners when he approached them to pay a ransom. Her mother corrects her: "Hanged, Ami. Your father was not a tapestry."
* In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', Wyoh tells Prof that Manny had taken advantage of her the night before, stating that he "drugged" her. Prof chides her not to corrupt the language, saying that the word is "dragged." In this case, however, he's ignoring the larger issue because he knows Wyoh is not even trying to make a serious accusation, just giving Manny a bad time.
** The inalienable/unalienable confusion mentioned in ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'' occurs when Prof writes a Declaration of Independence for the Moon Colony that is almost a word-for-word plagiarism of the American one. Though that's one of the more reasonable of the myriad niggling points made by people who seem to have forgotten they're trying to declare their freedom from Earth.
* Was the cause of a mystery in one ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' story. A young Lothario dictated a love note to his crush's little sister. Unfortunately, because he didn't tell her the ''punctuation'', she added it in herself, turning the romantic line "I can't stop thinking you're the prettiest girl in the world" into "I can't. Stop thinking you're the prettiest girl in the world." He gets a fist to the gut due to this.
* In ''Spark'', book two of the Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer, Simon, a deaf boy who wants to play basketball, is written on in permanent marker and stuffed into a locker by his teammates. Gabriel, in an attempt to make him feel better, points out that they wrote "rettard".
* In ''Literature/AWolfInTheSoul'', Greg feels compelled to correct others' grammar, at least in his thoughts. Even while they're shooting at him.
* In the ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novel "Flight of the Eisenstein", while Garro's ship is attempting to desert the Warmaster's fleet and BringNewsBack, an [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious comms officer]] insists that it's [[TheMutiny an act of mutiny]]. The captain's sole reaction is to correct him: it's not mutiny, it's barratry because it's the captain doing it.
* ''Literature/KateShugak'': The short story "The Eyak Interpreter" is written in the form of a blog Johnny is writing for extra credit in his Advanced English class. It includes online comments from various park rats, including his English teacher who provides a running critique on his AmbiguousSyntax, run-on sentences, parentheses within parentheses, etc.
* ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'': An early chapter has Gideon and Harrowhark arguing (something of a recurring pattern for a while), and at one point Harrowhark sarcastically points out a minor error in Gideon's rant:
-->'''Gideon:''' Nonagesimus, the only job I'd do for you would be if you wanted someone to hold the sword as you fell on it. The only job I'd do for you would be if you wanted your ass kicked so hard, the Locked Tomb opened and a parade came out to sing, 'Lo! A destructed ass.' The only job I'd do would be if you wanted me to spot you while you backflipped off the top tier into Drearburh.\\
'''Harrowhark:''' That's three jobs.\\
'''Gideon:''' ''Die in a fire'', Nonagesimus.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* There is also an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' in which the title character tries to get a job at a magazine, so he arrives at the interview with a whole stack of papers containing the errors in one issue of the magazine. Also, some of those corrections are debatable and may no longer apply, such as his complaint against the word "decimate". While the original use did indeed mean "to reduce by a tenth", specifically in relation to punishment in the Roman legions, the modern use of the word pretty much means "to destroy completely" and has already been included in most dictionaries. Note that he does get the job but immediately quits, as he still wants to be a cop.
* ''Series/StargateSG1''
** In the episode "The Other Guys", after having his cover blown and being brought before the leader of a large group of Jaffa, O'Neill is zapped with a torture stick and has the following exchange:
--->'''He'rak:''' No matter what you have endured, you've never experienced the likes of what Anubis is capable of.\\
'''Jack O'Neill:''' You ended that sentence with a preposition! Bastard!
** This happens quite often in the series, being a trademark aspect of his character; deflating the theatrics of the [[LargeHam Goa'uld]] is just what he does. When not outright correcting, he's delivering horrible puns.
--->'''Ba'al:''' You ''can not'' be serious.\\
'''O'Neill:''' Oh, no, I can. I just choose not to.
** And then there's this gem:
--->'''Ba'al:''' Do you not know the pain you will suffer for this impudence?\\
'''Jack O'Neill:''' I don't know the meaning of the word. Seriously... impudence... what does it mean?
** Done hilariously in "Window of Opportunity". As more time loops go past, O'Neill and Teal'c learn more of the Ancient language they need to decipher to end the loop. In one scene, Daniel is writing out the translation on a board and Teal'c AND O'Neill correct his translation. Later, we see Daniel sitting back flabbergasted while O'Neill and Teal'c write the translations themselves.
* In the TV series ''Series/{{Starman}}'', Scott corrects Fox's grammar in the middle of a hostage exchange.
-->'''Fox:''' Go on. Slow.\\
'''Scott:''' The word is slowly. It's an adverb.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}''
** Niles Crane has a habit of using a marker pen to correct all the grammar and spelling mistakes of the graffiti in public restrooms.
** Daphne gives a lovely speech in the second season just to build up to a fantastic example of this:
--->'''Daphne:''' I was very mistrusting of people back then. I was convinced the way to stay out of harm's way was to walk the streets with me eyes cast down, never meeting anyone's glance. But, finally, I decided that was no way to live, so one day I just lifted up me chin and took it all in. Well, the change was amazing. There were sights I'd never seen, sounds I've never heard. A tiny old man came up to me with a note in his hand. He needed help. I realized this was no city full of thieves and muggers. There were people here who needed me. I took his note, read it, and to this day I can remember just what I said to that man. "That's not how you spell 'fellatio'."
** Niles' reaction to the "injurious graffito" limerick Frasier finds [[BathroomStallGraffiti in a bathroom stall]];
--->'''Frasier:'''
---->''There once was a man, Frasier Crane\\
Who says he can feel your pain.\\
But he acts like a snob\\
To the guys at his job\\
And I think he's totally lame.''
--->'''Niles:''' That's ''terrible!''\\
'''Frasier:''' Thank you, Niles.\\
'''Niles:''' There's a tense shift, an approximate rhyme, the scansion leaves a ''lot'' to be desired...
** When Frasier catches his son Frederick running in the house, he asks what he's said about that. Frederick responds "You said to never do that." Frasier, still upset, says "And what have I told you about splitting infinitives?"
* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Lily ruins a romantic moment by pointing out that Marshall confused your/you're. (Or Marshall ruined the moment for Lily by confusing your/you're in the first place.) And of course, the difference between "effect" and "affect" is one of only two things Marshall himself is really serious about.
** As Ted prepares to leave New York forever because he can't get over his feelings for Robin, he takes the opportunity to do some things around the city that he'd always wanted to - including correcting some graffiti that said "your a penis" to "YOU'RE a penis"
* In an episode of ''Series/AmericanDreams'', [[TheSpock Patty]] got to go on ''Series/AmericanBandstand'' and was asked on-air about the song that had just been performed. She responded by criticizing it for its poor grammar. The song was "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Music/TheRollingStones. The plot of that episode was that Patty had gotten tired of the other kids picking on her being such a nerd and decided to make a go at being cool like her big sister Meg, so she let Meg and Roxanne give her an UnnecessaryMakeover and bring her on the show. That scene demonstrated that even though she was wearing pretty clothes now, she was still the unhip know-it-all she had always been, thus setting up her PygmalionSnapBack.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}''
** In "The One with the Jellyfish", Ross reacts to a letter Rachel sends him:
--->'''Ross:''' Oh, and by the way, Y-O-U-''apostrophe''-R-E means YOU ARE. Y-O-U-R means YOUR.
** In fairness, the letter had rambled for ''at least'' 18 pages (front and back), explaining why Ross was defensive about falling asleep while reading it at 5:30 AM.
** Also, on one occasion, Joey corrects Ross on the use of "who" vs. "whom". It fits because it's ''[[BookDumb Joey]]''.
* We can't forget about this hilarious gem in the ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' episode "Peruvian Puff Pepper:
-->'''Drake''': We can't. It says here they're only available in South Amer-eeka. ''(looks at Josh)'' What?\\
'''Josh''': South America!
* In ''Series/{{Bones}}'', Hodgins signed for Zack's package and flirts with the delivery girl.
-->'''Zack:''' You bogarted my package!\\
'''Hodgins:''' You froze, so your package came into play. Also, complete misuse of the word "bogarted".
** Also justified, as Zack has NoSocialSkills, including the ability to use slang, and Hodgins has taken it upon himself to help him learn.
* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'':
** George gets a job teaching English to foreign migrants. On a trip to the toilet, he notices they've written some insulting graffiti about him, so he corrects it. Then his boss walks in and tells him to stop defacing property.
** In an earlier episode, after Mitchell is mistaken for a paedophile, the word "peedo" is sprayed onto their door. George's response is to yell at the neighbors, "There's one 'E' in 'paedo'!"
** Apparently it runs in the family: in the episode in which George's dad appears, he points out a spelling error in his own obituary.
* A brilliant use of ComicallyMissingThePoint in a ''Series/NotTheNineOClockNews'' skit usually referred to as "Not the Parrot Sketch": A headmaster reminds a schoolboy that he was accepted to the school on the basis of an essay he wrote about a parrot belonging to "My aunt, who I live with". Readings from his exam papers reveal that he has been answering every question in every subject by finding some tenuous way to re-tell the same anecdote in the same words. After several examples, the angry headmaster can stand it no more:
-->'''Headmaster:''' Do you think I'm some sort of idiot? Did you think I wouldn't notice? (''beat'') It's "'''with whom''' I live"! "My aunt '''with whom''' I live"! Not "who I live with"!
* In ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Chief Vick ordering Shawn to not bring his father in when an old case of his is reopened.
-->'''Chief:''' It goes without saying, Mr. Spencer, that your father is in no way to participate in this investigation. He's no longer on the force, and his meddling could compromise the case in court. Do I make myself clear?\\
'''Shawn:''' Yes you do, Chief. What isn't clear is why people always say "goes without saying," yet still feel compelled to say the thing that was supposed to go without saying. Doesn't that bother you?\\
'''Chief:''' No! And frankly, I could care less.\\
'''Gus:''' Now that's the one that bothers me. Why do people say "I could care less" when they really mean "I couldn't care less"?\\
'''Chief:''' Well, why don't you tell me how to properly say this? If you share any official information about this case with your father or let him anywhere near any new evidence, then the two of you will have to find another police department to work for, and I will personally see to it that each of you is charged with obstruction of justice.\\
'''Gus:''' You split an infinitive.\\
'''Shawn:''' Good catch, Gus!\\
'''Chief:''' You two realize I carry a gun, right?\\
'''Gus:''' That was perfectly elocuted.
* ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' has a sketch about a too-nice, ExtremeDoormat teacher whose class ignores him. When he comes in, the blackboard has "YOU BARSTAD" written on it. He tells one of the students that it's spelled "bastard": "Otherwise, good."
* On ''Series/TheGoodGuys'', the reason Jack was demoted and sent to work with Dan is that he corrected a superior officer in public that there is no "statue of limitations." Knowing the character it probably was not the first time he did something like this.
* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Small Potatoes", a man who can shape-shift decides to replace Mulder in hopes of a more interesting life. When he and Scully (who is unaware) return to Washington to hand in their reports, there is this scene with A.D. Skinner:
-->'''Skinner:''' Which one of you wrote this?\\
'''Eddie Van Bluhnt (as Mulder):''' I did, sir.\\
'''Skinner:''' You spelled "Federal Bureau of Investigation" wrong.\\
'''Eddie Van Blunht (as Mulder):''' It was a typo.\\
'''Skinner:''' Twice.
* Series one of ''Series/LittleBritain'' has the character of a teacher who had [[TeacherStudentRomance married one of his former students]], but continues to treat her as if she is still at school. In one episode, when she gives him a card for their wedding anniversary, he proceeds to correct the grammar mistakes and put "See Me" at the end.
* From ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
** When Davos notes that Stannis Baratheon removing four of his fingertips for smuggling left him with four less fingernails to clean, Stannis corrects his use of "less" in place of "fewer". He has four ''fewer'' fingernails to clean.
** In a later episode, when some Men of the Nights Watch say something about "let them die, we'll have less enemies", Stannis again mutters "fewer".
** While reading up on siege warfare, Tyrion fumbles through trying to pronounce the notoriously difficult name of Archmaester Ch'Vyalthan. Only for Bronn to cut in with the proper pronunciation. And then Varys enters to reveal Bronn pronounced it wrong as well.
* One episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Tracy]] correcting [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Toofer]].
-->'''Tracy:''' So, how you doing over there Theo Huxtable?\\
'''Toofer:''' I'm doing good.\\
'''Tracy:''' Nah-uh. Superman does good; you're doing well. You need to study your grammar, son.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}''
** In the episode "Double Down", the murderer scrawls a message on his victim's face. Castle's first reaction on seeing this is that the grammar is wrong: the killer used "your" instead of "you're".
---> '''Castle''': I'm just saying, whoever killed her also murdered the English language.
** He later compliments a guy on his proper use of the word "irony" and explains that most people use it incorrectly. Then again, he's a writer, so he has to think about these things constantly.
* In ''Series/BandOfBrothers'', Winters is informed in writing that he is to face a court-martial. The document he's handed contains a number of misspellings, and Nixon comments on it.
-->'''Nixon:''' He misspelled court-martial...
* ''Series/TheLatestBuzz'': In "The Pet Peeves Issue", Michael complains to Rebecca that she is always correcting his grammar. She then points out that he ended a sentence with a preposition.
* From Season 1, Episode 7 of ''Series/MyFamily'':
-->'''Janey:''' Well, I wish I was dead!\\
'''Susan:''' Janey! How can you say that? "I wish I ''were'' dead", the subjunctive.
* ''Series/TheWire'' has a running gag where people keep nitpicking the grammar of police reports.
** In one scene, [=McNulty=] and Rhonda Perlman present their request for a continuation of their wiretaps to Judge Phelan sees the judge delighting in making Jimmy squirm by listing his various spelling and grammatical errors, before granting them what they asked for without a word of complaint.
--->'''Phelan:''' You misspelled 'culpable'. And you're confusing "then" and "than". T-H-E-N is an adverb used to divide and measure time; "Detective [=McNulty=] makes a mess, and '''then''' he has to clean it up." \\
'''[=McNulty=]:''' [[SarcasmMode Thanks, Teach, I mean it's great that you're going through every word, b-]]\\
'''Phelan:''' ''[interrupting]'' Not to be confused with T-H-A-N, which is most commonly used after a comparative adjective or adverb as in "Rhonda is smarter than Jimmy."
** One scene has several people chuckle about a police reports stating that a perp "fell prostate on the floor" (instead of prostrate).
** The final season kicks it up a notch with the professional writers working at the newspaper. A crusty veteran there corrects a younger reporter's use of "evacuate" in a story about a fire: The object of that verb has to be the container being emptied. If you evacuate a building, you're taking the people out. If you evacuate the ''people'', you're giving them enemas.
* A sketch on ''Series/SmackThePony'' had a guy and a girl laughing and holding hands on the beach. He picks up a stick and writes "RICK LOVE'S SOFIE" in the sand, and she takes the stick and corrects it to "RICK LOVES SOPHIE". Then he crosses out the word "loves". Then she adds a "P" to the beginning of his name. [[MinorFlawMajorBreakup Then they walk off in opposite directions.]]
* The opening of "[[Recap/SherlockS01E03TheGreatGame The Great Game]]" episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' consists of the famed detective sitting across from a man accused of murder, listening to the story of his murder and casually correcting his atrocious grammar, culminating with:
-->'''Sherlock:''' (standing up to leave)\\
'''Accused:''' You've gotta help me, Mr. Holmes! Everyone says you're the best. Without you, I'll get hung for this.\\
'''Sherlock:''' No, no. Not at all. ''Hanged,'' yes.
* Played for laughs by Ash and Danny in one episode of ''Series/{{Hustle}}'':
-->'''Danny:''' ... I'll be using three of my favourite words. "Unsubstantiated", "Libelous" and "Court Case".\\
'''Ash:''' "Court Case" is two words.\\
'''Danny:''' Oh yeah? Well, I used a '''bloody hyphen!'''
* In one episode of ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'', Professor Jirafales enters the classroom to find that someone drew a cartoon of him as a longsausage and labeled "Maestro Longanisa". He immediately proceeds to correct it as "Maestro Longaniza" and sit down before realizing what he saw.
** There's also a recurring joke where adults try to teach kids correct grammar.
--->'''Adult:''' Where is (person)?\\
'''Chavo:''' I don't knew.\\
'''Adult:''' It's not "I don't knew".\\
'''Chavo:''' Then how do you say it?\\
'''Adult:''' "I don't know".\\
'''Chavo:''' Then don't correct me.
* In ''Series/TheKillPoint'', Horst Cali constantly corrects people's grammar while they're trying to talk to him about the ongoing hostage situation.
* In the ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' episode "The Werewolf Transformation", Sheldon loses faith in the importance of his self-imposed rules of conduct and decides to embrace chaos, starting by playing the bongos loudly in the middle of the night. The following exchange ensues.
-->'''Sheldon:''' Richard Feynman played the bongos. I thought I'd give it a try.\\
'''Leonard:''' Richard Feynman was a famous physicist.\\
'''Penny:''' Oh, Leonard, it's three o'clock in the morning! I don't care if Richard Feynman was a purple leprechaun who lived in my butt!\\
'''Sheldon (playing the bongos):''' Penny meant if he were a purple leprechaun. Penny forgot to use the subjunctive.
* On ''Series/CornerGas'', the local newspaper, the ''Dog River Howler'', is a frequent offender of this and WorstNewsJudgementEver. Take for instance the headline "HANK IS [[PsychicPowers PHYCIC]]".
-->'''Wanda:''' "Phycic"? Honestly, how much does a spellcheck program cost? What's the story say?\\
'''Brent:''' I don't know, I haven't finished reading it yet. I started to read it but then it was "contunied on page 30".
* ''Series/AquiNoHayQuienViva'': Juan Cuesta, as a teacher, is shown to be obsessed with ortography. He once reduced the grade of a student in an exam because the kid spelled his own name wrong, and got arrested because a policeman caught him ''correcting the typos of a graffito''.
* In ''{{Series/The Librarians|2014}}'' "And the Tears of a Clown," Jacob Stone and his fellow Librarians are immobilized and at the mercy of an unhinged magician who's about to turn them into wax dummies, but that doesn't keep Jacob from correcting the villain when he misquotes Shakespeare.
-->'''Kirby:''' "Doubt truth be a lie, but always know, I love you."\\
'''Jacob:''' Actually, it's "doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love." ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}},'' Act 2, Scene 2.\\
'''Kirby:''' ''Don't'' correct me.\\
'''Jacob:''' [''shrug''] Don't be wrong.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'': President Bartlet's response during a public debate with a political opponent:
-->'''President Bartlet''': First, let's clear up a couple of things. [[DeadpanSnarker "Unfunded mandate" is two words, not one big word.]]
* ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'': In "Rocket", Morse tells a protestor wielding a placard that he does not doubt his sincerity, but that he might get more respect if he spelled 'Levellers' correctly.
* ''Series/NewTricks'': In "Good Morning Lemmings", Brian wastes an entire morning attempting to compose the perfect 140 character tweet, which eventually causes an exasperated Jack to snap:
-->'''Jack:''' Brian, I can summarise what you've achieved this morning in precisely six characters: SOD ALL!"\\
'''Brian:''' Seven. You forgot the space.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Death and Dust", a woman receives an anonymous note, warning her about her fiance's past affairs. The note turns out to be from her children who do not want her to remarry. When she finds out, she delivers a stinging response that ends with:
-->"And you don't need a comma between 'Hepworth' and 'and'. It's completely redundant."
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Master did this in the TV Movie, when he (disguised as an ambulance medic), the Doctor, and Grace Holloway were in the back of an ambulance. Bear in mind, neither the Doctor nor Grace know what the Master ''looks like.'' She says something ending with "...as good as me," and the Master blows his cover with "...as ''well'' as you."
* ''Series/HankZipzer'': In "Hank's New School", Hank is protesting his parents' decision to take him out of Westbrook by waving a placard at the breakfast table. Emily's response is to glance briefly at his sign and murmur:
-->"Your placard's spelled wrong."
* ''Series/GrangeHill'': Mr Sutcliffe mis-spells one of his signs, directing new pupils around the school.
-->'''Mr. Keating''': Excellent, you've done a splendid job, Graeme. Just one thing: "secretary" has two R's in it.\\
'''Mr. Sutcliffe''': Two R's? (The sign is spelled "secetary")\\
'''Mr. Keating''': Back to school.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/SergeGainsbourg wrote a whole song around this idea: "En relisant ta lettre" ("Rereading your letter").
* Music/TheTragicallyHip have "Luv [Sic]".
* A lesser-known Creator/MontyPython number called "School Song" features Michael Palin as a schoolteacher hectoring boys during an assembly singalong. At one point he snaps "You don't spell 'wank' with a c, Barworth!"
* Ja Rule, in a diss he made to Shady Records, spelled murder M-U-R-E-D-R. Swifty responded with, "You claimin' you a murderer but you spelled it wrong / You put E before the D because that's all you on."
* A mid-'90s [[WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Chipmunks]] Country Collaboration album had Simon paired with Music/AaronTippin singing his big hit, "There Ain't[[labelnote:*]]Isn't[[/labelnote]] Nothing[[labelnote:*]]Anything[[/labelnote]] Wrong with the Radio". (Simon kept correcting the lyrics while he was singing the song, earning Tippin's ire.)
* Sloan's first single "Underwhelmed" is made of this.
-->''She wrote out a story about her life\\
I think it included something about me\\
I'm not sure of that, but I'm sure of one thing\\
Her spelling's atrocious\\
She told me to read between the lines\\
And tell her exactly what I got out of it\\
I told her, "'affection' has two 'f's\\
"Especially when you're dealing with me."''
** Though that last line is also quite a sly pun, particularly in the context of the song.
* Who could forget "I Love You Period" by Dan Baird?
-->''Then one day I decided,\\
that I would write a little letter\\
She said the spellin' was a masterpiece,\\
the punctuation could be better\\
I understood what she was saying,\\
I got the gist of her sentiment\\
She said "I don't mean to be degrading,\\
"but here's the way that it should've went:"''
* The Music/FallOutBoy song "The Music or the Misery" references this trope in its first verse: "I got your love letters, corrected their grammar and sent them back."
* "Be Prepared" by Music/TomLehrer, from ''Music/SongsByTomLehrer'', admonishes Boy Scouts: "Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell."
* The entire point of Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc Word Crimes.]]
* Rapper Mac Lethal once did a [=YouTube=] video where he responded to a comment one of his haters sent him on Facebook; the message itself is so incoherent that it takes him several minutes to get through it. Besides spending the entire actual rap taking the troll to task over his grammar and spelling, he opens it with this gem:
-->''And first of all Geoff, I hope you burn up in hell\\
Here's a list of all the goddamn words you misspelled''[[labelnote:The list]]Just, you, know, suck, rapping, what, stupid, mother, have, living, oh, you're, your, faggot, wanna, black, would, fucking, daughter, brought, Desert Eagle, are, ridiculous, douche[[/labelnote]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Print Media]]
* ''Magazine/PrivateEye'' once did a column spoofing the columnist Keith Waterhouse (a noted GrammarNazi). In it he described seeing an incredibly offensive piece of graffiti "Down with wimmin, there all tarts" which so offended him that he had to paint over it... to change the "there" to "they're".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* {{Theatre/Ruddigore}} has Rose interrupting Mad Margaret's [[TheOphelia mad scene]] with controversy over "who" versus "whom," insisting that "it is the accusative after the verb."
* In the song "One Hundred Easy Ways" in ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'', Ruth explains how to lose a man by correcting his grammar:
-->''You've found your perfect mate and it's been love from the start,\\
He whispers, "You're the one to who I give my heart."\\
Don't say, "I love you, too, my dear, let's never, never, part,"\\
Just say, "I'm afraid you've made a grammatical error. It's not 'To ''who'' I give my heart', it's 'To ''whom'' I give my heart.' -- You see, with the use of the preposition 'to,' 'who' becomes the indirect object, making the use of 'whom' imperative; which I can easily show you by drawing a simple chart."\\
That's a fine way to lose a man.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'':
-->'''[[PrivateDetective Lewton]]:''' Can I see the Count?\\
'''[[TheJeeves Butler]]:''' I am not in a position to ascertain the effectiveness of sir's eyesight. However, sir ''may'' see the Count, which is what I believe sir was attempting in sir's uneducated way to ask.
* In one part of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', a pair of {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s kidnap the daughter of a rich family and demand a ransom. The person who finds the note reads it and is absolutely shocked at their ''craptacular'' spelling. It actually takes him a second to realise they kidnapped her.
* Taken to extremes in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|APromiseUnforgotten}}'' -- upon discovering a 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.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'': Rikku at one point reports their status as "[[PerfectlyCromulentWord disasterrific]]". Brother demands that she use "disastrous" like the rest of the world.
** Of course, when Yuna later uses the same word to describe their situation, rather than berate her use of the word, Brother is ready to charge in to save the girls, but especially Yuna.
** In Japanese, she says "Daijoubanai" conjugating the noun Daijoubu (everything is okay) into a negative form even though the word doesn't work that way.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the terminals in the LOB building reveal that the company is carrying out illicit weapons research for the Chinese, and the management fears the place inevitably being stormed by the government. A final email reading "MAN THE DOORS! THE FEDS ARE HERE!" is met with a snippy response about the company policy against using all-caps in emails.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'':
** Yahtzee visually did this during the "mailbag showdown" where the emails that appeared on screen were corrected as they were read (including one instance of "See Me [After Class]").
** Yahtzee has also been known to do this when reviewing games with "imaginatively" spelled titles, most recently in his review of ''Ryse: Son of Rome''.
* Strong Bad from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' usually pronounces the misspelled words the way they're spelled, though occasionally he will tab up into the message and edit the errors. Among other things, the character of Homsar was born this way... his name was originally a misspelling of Homestar in an early sbemail.
-->'''Strong Bad:''' Okay, so until next time, keep sending me your questions, and I will keep making fun of your punctuation and spelling... I mean, answer them.
* ''WebAnimation/DotDotDot'' originally started as someone reading a bad review of a game phonetically. People liked it so much that the [[SelfDemonstratingArticle anamation]] was made later.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070528 Agatha gives back his book to Vanamonde]] with "[[MotorMouth Allthe]]''[[MotorMouth spellingcorrections]]''[[MotorMouth arein]]''[[MotorMouth red]]''" during a CaffeineBulletTime.
* In ''Frank'', the official {{webcomic}} of Website/LiveJournal, Professor Grammar is fond of this, at one point somehow correcting ''a blank piece of paper''.
* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' does this every now and then.
** One of the best was a meta-example [[http://somethingpositive.net/sp04032006.shtml here:]] "The [[{{Jerkass}} fifth reader]] who sent an email starting off, 'You [[StrawmanPolitical Liberal Faggot]],' please remember 'suck' has a 'c' in it."
** The author also made fun of people who refer to themselves as grammar nazis, by making up a character who educated children on the proper use of punctuation. The Komma Klansman.
* ''Webcomic/AModestDestiny'': [[http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?ep=1&id=48]]
-->'''Maxim:''' You misspelled "dismemberment"!\\
'''Shadow:''' Luckily, I'm better at doing it than spelling it...
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'':
** Grammer Gorilla [sic], "a super-strong simian who likes to talk good [sic]." And yes, even though he flies into an UnstoppableRage at [[BerserkButton anyone ending a sentence with a preposition]], he always gets his own grammar wrong.
** Also a fan called Alyssa, who exhibited a case of ComicallyMissingThePoint and was rewarded with three "appearances" in the comic, becoming the local poster child for this trope even more than Grammer Gorilla. [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20051102 [1] ]], [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20071224 [2] ]], [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20091113 [3] ]]
** Riff too does it [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/980913 in one strip.]]
--->'''Riff:''' This isn't good.\\
'''Kiki:''' What is it?\\
'''Riff:''' There are typos ''everywhere!'' Sam can't even ''spell'' vampire!
* [[http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/comic/gws-849/ One strip]] of ''Webcomic/GirlsWithSlingshots'' is a good example of this trope.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''
** Xykon allegedly killed an executioner for spelling "guillotine" wrong in his daily reports. He will also berate anyone who [[PsmithPsyndrome misspells his name in their speech balloons]].
** In one ''Magazine/{{Dragon}} Magazine'' strip, Vaarsuvius chastises two hostile undead for constantly ending their sentences with prepositions... while trying to evade the same opponents with a "Hide from Undead" spell cast by Durkon. Obviously, this breaks the spell prematurely.
* [[http://www.out-at-home.com/archives/73 This Strip]] of ''Webcomic/OutAtHome'' has Penny break the fourth wall and correct the spelling on the speech bubbles of her fourth wall ignorant friend.
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' plays with the trope [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1942 here]].
** Also crossing into TooDumbToLive territory [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2010-05-24 here]].
* The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to ''Webcomic/GetMedieval'' stated that ten years after the main events, the comic books Neithe writes always contain a thank-you to Asher in their acknowledgments... "and his articles often contain lists of her mistakes." Neithe is shown laughing heartily as she reads what's apparently one of those lists.
* [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/1578/ This strip]] of ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness''.
* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' has the North American Grammar Squirrel. He first appeared when Molly and Golly were arguing about the correct adverb form of "cosmogony". It's "cosmogonically", in case you wondered.
* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/11/03 employs Mr. Period and his friends]] for this purpose.
* ''Webcomic/TheOatmeal'' [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/top_tweets LOVES]] [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/ie this]] trope.
* In the Western Arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', Pellinore's saloon [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0070.htm has a sign saying "SALOOON"]]. People come in to let him know, [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0137.htm and then order a drink since they're there anyway]]...
* ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'': Sandra's grandmother apparently [[http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/04/08/0049-graffiti/ has a habit]] (and a patent!) of correcting grammatical and spelling mistakes in graffiti.
* In ''Webcomic/FlintlockesGuideToAzeroth'', Flintlocke writes an angry letter to the Horde (yes, the ''entire'' Horde). Their first response? "He misspelled ZOMG."
* In ''Webcomic/ChuckAndBeans'', Beans' blog isn't getting many views, and Chuck suggests that Beans posts a blog post with a typo in it since the internet never ignores grammar and spelling errors. Beans posts a blog post saying "Their's been a few things on my mind lately", and people notice it almost immediately, as afterwards the blog gets 300 angry comments, the blog's server goes down, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick an angry mob appears outside of their house]].
* From ''The Mealstorm'':
-->'''Gangster:''' Still won't talk, huh? Well, how about me and Tony go throw you in the river?\\
'''Victim:''' ''(bound and gagged)'' Mmmm! Mmm! Mmmmmm!\\
'''Gangster:''' Oh, ''now'' he wants to talk. Let's see what he has to say... ''(peels off duct tape)''\\
'''Victim:''' Tony and ''I.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[http://failblog.org/2010/01/08/sexy-chat-win/ Sexy Chat Win.]] Ironically, he himself misspells the word "sentence" while correcting the other person's grammar.
* [[http://www.google.com/search?q=shcool This Google search:]] apparently, spelling "school" is hard to do. Especially on a school lane.
* The website ''Website/ActsOfGord'' claims that "The Gord" does this whenever someone gives him a bad CV. [[http://www.actsofgord.com/Annoy/chapter11.php An example (about halfway down).]]
* ''Website/TheOnion'' writes about [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30157 bad spelling and grammar in suicide notes,]] naturally ComicallyMissingThePoint.
* Sex columnist Dan Savage will occasionally respond to hate mail simply with grammar corrections. He's also inclined to correct his own errors in his blog when pointed out.
* Naturally, shows up often in the ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' stories. Upon seeing a CaptainObvious title that promised a particularly gory mission, one agent said, "Is it bad that my first response to that was '[[ComicallyMissingThePoint That needs an Oxford comma]]'?"
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUfB8hng2bo A short film]] takes the concept and runs with it.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM One sketch]] from ''Website/CollegeHumor'' features a Nazi who is also a GrammarNazi.
** The sketch "When Not To Correct People's Grammar" features a guy who repeatedly corrects a friend's grammar [[ComedicSociopathy as he's describing his brother's suicide]].
--->"I took his body down, and—and I was screaming at him to wake up, and he was just—just laying there and—and it just felt like...like it was my fault."\\
"No. No, no—Pat, he was ''lying'' there. 'Lay' is a transitive verb."
* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's Top 11 F*ck Ups had the fans constant pointing out of little spelling mistakes he made in the list, including one where he spells Nostalgia wrong.
* Inversion: a minor [[Website/{{Fark}} Fark.com]] joke started when a user known as "rotsky" attempted to correct the spelling of a submitted article about Music/BritneySpears losing custody of her children, but in the process wound up spelling a word ''wrong''. The full story of the meme's origin can be read [[http://www.freewebs.com/rotsky/thestoryofrotsky.htm here.]]
* In the middle of ranting about how he thinks Chris Brown is [[SmugSnake a horrible excuse for a human being]], WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows also grammar-checks one of his tweets, giving him a D-.
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic had a viral video showing him driving around with his wife. He says "There's another one," and she pulls over. He gets out and stands in front of a "Drive Slow" sign. He then sticks a Post-It note onto the sign so that it now reads "Drive Slowly." He looks at the camera and says "Grammar, people, grammar."
* ''WebVideo/{{Jacksfilms}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA6687CF25DE17420 "Your Grammar Sucks"]] series on Website/YouTube takes actual user comments from Website/YouTube, Facebook, and other sites and reads them phonetically for the humor value. Sometimes he attempts to "helpfully" correct a particularly awful bit of grammar.
* [[http://notalwaysright.com/peaking-at-high-school-isnt-f-u-n-n-y/24279 This incident]] on ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'' shows a customer in a bookstore complaining about the quality of a book... and then misspelling the word "money" as "M-U-N-N-Y". Naturally, a more literate customer calls out the first on this. In this case, though, the illiteracy of the first customer completely undermines the complaint about the book's quality, making this a {{justified|Trope}} example.
** Sister site ''Not Always Friendly'' [[https://notalwaysright.com/theyd-had-a-friendship-of-note/28534/ has this story,]] where the submitter annoys an ex-friend by correcting a poorly-written, insulting note.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''
** In the episode "Francine Goes to War" Francine is trying to prank her new neighbor Mrs. Pariso into moving back out of the apartment building after Mrs. Pariso has annoyed Francine. At one point she writes her a letter claiming to be from the building's landlord and that the building is in danger of collapsing due to termites and has to be evacuated. The only problem is that Muffy writes the letter despite having less-than-optimal writing skills. Mrs. Pariso returns the letter to Francine with all of Muffy's mistakes corrected.
** In "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone", Muffy makes a love letter to trick the librarian into thinking that Mr. Ratburn is in love with her. She gives the letter back to Muffy with markings indicating several spelling errors she made and also gives her a book on how to write a poem to help her improve.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''
** In "The Problem with Popplers", King Lrr of Omicron Persei VIII reveals that the delicious "popplers" Earthlings have been obsessing over are actually larval Omicronians, a revelation that doesn't shake Zapp Branigan in the slightest.
--->'''Zapp:''' These would be great with some gway-ka-mole.\\
'''Lrr:''' ''STOP EATING OUR YOUNG!'' [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne And it's pronounced "guacamole"!]]
** "Love and Rocket" has the Omicronians again, this time getting upset over a candy that said "Wuv", with an Earth W.
--->'''Lrr:''' This concept of "wuv" confuses and ''infuriates'' us!
** Played with in a conversation between the Donbot and henchman Joey Mousepad, the latter's habitual mangled English being a RunningGag.
--->'''Joey Mousepad:''' But what if management proves intragnizant?\\
'''Donbot:''' From the context, it is clear what you mean.
* On an earthquake-themed episode of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Hamton and Plucky are hanging on the edge of a massive crack in the earth, with Buster and Babs hopping to the rescue.
-->'''Buster''' and '''Babs:''' We gotcha! We gotcha!\\
'''Hamton:''' That's not proper grammar!
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' has this exchange:
-->'''Sonic:''' You spelled "kidnapped" with a "c".\\
'''Robotnik:''' So? When I take over Mobius, that's how ''everyone'' will spell it!
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** One episode revealed that Otto, Bart's bus driver, not only failed every segment of his driver's ed test, he misspelled "bus" on his application.
** In "Bart the Genius", Martin critiques the spelling of Bart's graffiti.
--->'''Martin:''' The preferred spelling of "wiener" is W-I-E-N-E-R. Although E-I is an acceptable ethnic variant.
** Later in that same episode Bart writes a confession note to the deceived district psychologist. The response:
--->'''Dr. Pryor:''' You know, you misspelled "confession".
** In "Trilogy of Error", Lisa created a robot named Linguo whose primary directive was to correct the grammar of others. It ended up [[ExplosiveOverclocking overloading]] when it encountered the Springfield Mafia.
--->'''Homer:''' ''[an explosion sent Linguo's head flying and it landed next to Homer, who picks it up]'' Linguo dead?\\
'''Linguo:''' "Linguo IS dead..." ''[shuts down, Homer closes its eyes]''
** In "Pray Anything", this exchange occurs when the Simpsons are attending a WNBA game in Springfield:
--->'''Bart''': Lisa Leslie, you got game!\\
'''Lisa Leslie''': I think you mean "I have game". Try to speak correctly.\\
'''Bart''': You go, girl!\\
'''Lisa Leslie''': Yes, I will depart lest your bad grammar rub off on me.
** When Mr. Burns's son applies for Yale, he does poorly to the point that, for Yale to accept him, Mr. Burns would have to donate the equivalent of a private airport. Where did it start?
--->'''Burns:''' He spelled "Yale" [[UpToEleven with a 6]].
** In "Marge in Chains" Lionel Hutz tries to give a fake verdict to Judge Snyder: "This verdict is written on a cocktail napkin! And it still says guilty! And "guilty" is spelled wrong!"
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' features KnowNothingKnowItAll Peggy showing off her skills:
-->'''Tammi:''' Can I go to the bathroom?\\
'''Peggy:''' ''Can'' you, or ''could you''? You may.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow''
-->'''Kid:''' Hey, it's the lady from the school that has the big ass!\\
'''Donna:''' ''[scolding]'' Language!\\
'''Kid:''' Hey, it's the lady from the school who has the big ass!\\
'''Donna:''' There you go!
:: Later in the same episode, Cleveland refers to "that time I helped that homeless person." [[CutawayGag Cut]] to Cleveland correcting the spelling on a homeless man's cardboard sign.
* A ''US Acres'' cartoon on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' has Orson receiving the cryptic ultimatum "The bunny rabbits is coming." The ever-paranoid Wade starts freaking out, but Orson only remarks "Shouldn't that be 'The bunny rabbits ''are'' coming?'" This eventually becomes a RunningGag throughout the short. And soon, some characters are replacing ''are'' with ''is'' in their sentences (and vice versa).
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', during the escape from the Boiling Rock, Zuko and Chit Sang stage a fight so Zuko could unbolt the cooler from the inside. The argument it starts with [[RuleOfFunny isn't exactly one you'd expect from a part of convicts]]:
-->'''Zuko:''' Hey! You watch who you're shoving!\\
'''Chit Sang:''' I think you mean ''whom'' I'm shoving!
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': When Mrs. Wingo reads her farewell card in "Doug Graduates", she informs [[TheBully Roger]] that [[CatchPhrase "Sayonara suckers!"]] is two words.
* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' once has Colonel K contact DM to say:
-->'''Col. K:''' Wales is being devastated by a fire-breathing dragon!\\
'''Penfold:''' Shouldn't that be, "Whales ''are'' being devastated"?\\
'''Col. K:''' Not whales! ''UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}!''
* Befitting a reporter, Clark Kent once used this to defeat Mr. Mxyzptlk in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': he claimed that he couldn't play Mxy's game until he got an article done, and Mxy agreed to edit it to speed things up. The thing is, Clark intentionally riddled his article with typos, and as Mxy crossed them out he spelled "kltpzyxm" - which was the condition for getting Mxy to go away.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'': Penny, in voice-over, says the only reason she didn't pull this trope on the DrillSergeantNasty in the episode "Diary of a Bad Girl" was that her mouth was full of the cookies she stole, when he sarcastically asked, "Got no milk?"
* A ''WesternAnimation/QuickDrawMcGraw'' cartoon had Quick Draw, an outlaw, and a newspaper editor all at odds over the correct spelling of the word "daily." It is finally spelled correctly by a little boy.
* ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'': In "Enemies Mine", Gatlocke complains about Valve misusing the phrase "begging the question", although he immediately claims to be joking and says only a total pedant would get upset about something like that. Being Gatlocke, it's hard to know if he was being serious or not.
* Played for drama in the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' -- in the middle of [[spoiler:a ritual to banish Bill Cipher and stop TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, Ford]] corrects Stanley's use of "him and me", punctuating it with a very condescending ''"Grammar, Stanley"''. Stan is so angry he jumps [[spoiler: Ford]], interrupting the ritual, and allowing most of the cast to be captured by [[BigBad Bill]]. It should be mentioned that Stan [[spoiler:''didn't even finish high-school'' due to being kicked out by their parents]], so it was a particularly low blow.
-->'''Stanley:''' I'll "grammar Stanley" you, you stuck up son of a gun!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The Marquis de Favras, upon being handed his death warrant, was quoted saying, "I see that you have made three spelling mistakes."
* This dialogue between a linguist and her child -- done as an experiment and used to demonstrate that children don't learn grammar by feedback from GrammarNazi parents:
-->'''Child:''' Nobody don't like me.\\
'''Mother:''' No, say, "Nobody likes me."\\
'''Child:''' Nobody don't like me.\\
(''repeat several times'')\\
'''Mother:''' No, now listen carefully; say, "Nobody likes me."\\
'''Child:''' Oh! Nobody don't likes me.
* At one college, professors who were "in lecture" had "il" after their names. Which resulted in the sign, "Professor Brown is il. (sic)"
* College students often (sarcastically) correct poor grammar in ''bathroom graffiti''. It's common to see comments like "See me after class!" scrawled alongside poorly-composed comments.
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic, as demonstrated by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgTsF1ZCuRc exhibit A]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGWiTvYZR_w exhibit B.]]
** His band also gets into the act in "Al's Band":
--->People ask us what it's like in Al's band\\
What it's like to be in Mr. Yankovich's band\\
Then we tell them that it's Mr. Yankovic's band\\
Not a CH; the C sounds just like a K
* One anecdote relates that a man stopped his car in the area covered by a "No Stoping" sign. He was able to convince the judge to let him go without penalty on the basis that he was not extracting ore from the area around the sign, but merely stop'''p'''ing. "Stoping" with single "p" is indeed a real English word, and denotes a method of underground mining.
* At the Council of Constance (1412–23), one of the Cardinals had corrected an error of UsefulNotes/{{Holy Roman|Empire}} Emperor Sigismund's Latin grammar, to which he replied: "Ego sum rex romanis et supra grammaticam" ([[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem I am the king of the Romans and above grammar]]).[[note]]Double irony, because it's also wrong, the correct Latin expression should have been "Ego sum rex Romanorum..." and so on. Also, while this wasn't strictly observed in medieval Latin, the "most correct" Classical form would have him say "Rex Romanorum sum..." and so on (Classical Latin prefers to put the verb after the object and exhibits [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-drop_language pro-drop]]; Sigismund's use of the pronoun here is characteristic of his native German, though this is kind of confounding given that he famously devoted much time to becoming fluent in Hungarian, which is also pro-drop). Then again, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem refer to his comment]].[[/note]]
* Creator/OscarWilde was famously condemned as a homosexual after he sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel. The Marquess had written on a calling card, "For Oscar Wilde, posing as a Somdomite." Wilde officially was responding to the fact that sodomy was a crime, but the odds are that Wilde, being Oscar freaking Wilde, was more offended by the misspelling than being called the equivalent of a fag.
* Rene Hicks, during her Creator/ComedyCentral Presents special, talked about seeing a racist sign in a store's window in Mississippi. She went in to complain to the guy.
-->'''Renee Hicks:''' Well that didn't stop me, because I don't answer to that! I walked up in there all the way to the counter and I said "Hey, you see that sign out there? Well, the word 'Nigger' is... [[BaitAndSwitchComment spelled with TWO G's, you dumbass!]]"
* Before being crowned the German Emperor, Wilhelm II had sent a series of letters to his mother, Empress Victoria, describing, among other things, his desire to be the only man to ever kiss her hands. The reply was his own letter with grammar and spelling mistakes marked with red.
* Use of American English spelling conventions - in Britain - can be a BerserkButton to many Brits. Going to buy a donut at a UsefulNotes/McDonalds drive-thru can provoke a very colorful, sorry, ''colourful'', response, by those to whom American spellings are like fingernails down a blackboard, or who perceive a threat to established British social and cultural values. Quite sulfurous, perhaps, if you're a chemist who doesn't see why we should adopt the wrong spelling of the word "sulphur" and its derivatives, save for American convenience.[[note]]Hey, if ''we'' have to take the [[strike:junior ''and incorrect'']]perfectly correct name "aluminium", ''you'' can put up with "sulfur". Note for non-chemists: the definitive IUPAC spellings for the elements in question are "aluminium" and "sulfur". And "caesium", though that one's at least justified by the Latin root.[[/note]]
* As stated previously, people that go out of their way to correct the spelling and/or grammar of others tend to get called out on it since most people see it as someone with a huge SingleIssueWonk. While some people are just trying to fix mistakes, others will do so purely to [[ItAmusedMe annoy others]] or to feel superior over those that do not possess the same kind of skill when it comes to spelling and grammar.
[[/folder]]

----
k

[[TheStinger At last,]] [[BrickJoke we found the "k!"]]

** In the episode "Double Down", the murderer scrawls a message on his victim's face. Castle's first reaction on seeing this is that the grammar is wrong.

** He later compliments a guy on his proper use of irony and explains that most people use it incorrectly. Then again, he's a writer, so he has to think about these things constantly.

** This was also asked by ''Creator/AlanDavies'' to ''Creator/StephenFry'' on one episode of QI.