New York-based hipster band Vampire Weekend has released a new album, Contra, and so I am reminded of Oxford Comma, one of the singles off their eponymous first album.
Now, what exactly is an Oxford comma? An Oxford comma (sometimes known as a serial comma), is the comma before the word ‘and’ in a list. For example, “A Rabbi, a Priest, and a Minister walk into a bar…” Perhaps ironically, it seems the Oxford comma is not commonly used in British English, but is in American English.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g
As you can see in the video, the song itself is not really about our friend the Oxford Comma. And I’m not going to speculate on what the song actually is about. The video however is clearly…inspired, let’s say, by the works of director Wes Anderson, hero to hipsters everywhere. Incidentally, the video is directed by English comedic actor Richard Ayoade, whom hipster anglophiles will recognize from the brilliant Garth Marengi’s Darkplace and The IT Crowd.
2 Comments
i had no idea punctuation was such a hipster characteristic.
Coincidentally, I give a f–k about an Oxford Comma. I almost routinely insist on them and it annoys me when they aren’t used. It’s very easy to find a situation where they’re helpful and very hard to find one where they’re harmful. Wiki has a good example: My favourite types of sandwiches are pastrami, ham, cream cheese and peanut butter and jelly.