When you hear the term “grammar police,” you probably don’t picture real law enforcement officers. What if those cops really did enforce proper grammar? Juliana Gray and Erica Dawson imagined just that when they slipped grammar police into a film noir script. Of course, the buddy cops are named Strunk and White, as in the authors of the reference book The Elements of Style. It opens, as so many police procedurals do, with a crime scene in a dark alley.
BEAT COP
It’s over here, detectives. The body was found about an hour ago.
STRUNK
Use the active voice, rookie.
BEAT COP
Oh god, it’s horrible. I feel nauseous.
STRUNK
Unless you mean you’re sickening to contemplate, you mean “nauseated.” Now get out of my crime scene before you puke all over it.
It gets better from there. Read the entire episode at The Millions, but don’t let them see your participles dangling! Next, they need to do one with grammar nazis.
If you enjoyed that, here’s a couple of other suggestions from Metafilter: Chicago and Double Negative.