Missing Comma

Punctuation, it's important, people!!

The following text conversation is a good example of why a missing comma can cause confusion or even disgust.

Cristy: Call me pooter pants

Me: Lol, why?

Cristy: um, ew, lol

Me: Am I missing something?

So from my perspective I was wondering why in the world Cristy would want to be called “Pooter Pants” and I was slightly worried that she had, in fact, pootered in her pants at work. This would be highly unusual but you can understand my concern. When I did ask her why she wanted to be called pooter pants, she answered with ew. This was starting to get scarier. But surely Cristy wouldn’t be lol’ing about an accident in her drawers.

From Cristy’s perspective this was an entirely different conversation. She had intended to say: Call me, pooter pants. She was asking me (here playfully referred to as pooter pants) to call her from my desk. Then when I asked why, she thought that was rude, and replied with ew.

To answer my own question from my final response to Cristy above: The Comma is what you are missing!!

Cristy called me shortly after the text misunderstanding to ask why I hadn’t called her, and I replied that she hadn’t asked me to call her. A quick review of the text conversation revealed the source of confusion.

The moral of the story is do not underestimate the importance of commas. Its absence could cause someone to question your ability to control your bowels.