Meaning of Shatner comma | Babel Free

Definitions

A comma placed inappropriately between words, where no pause should occur in speech.

humorous

Examples

“The document that I'm reviewing has a terminal case of Shatner Comma. Not sure, if, that's a, valid comment though. May, have, to rephrase,.”

“But the real laughs, for us, came with the introduction of all sorts of new commas we had never heard of before: Obviously CMS fans wanted to rename the Oxford comma the Chicago comma, which is fine. But did you know about the Shatner comma?”

“The Shatner comma! That, is, you, know, a really, fantastic, idea. […] And the Shatner comma? It, does, nothing, but, put, pauses, where, they, do, not, belong.”

“As entertainment continues to influence the development of language, maybe one day “Shatner commas” and their odd, purposeless positions will become mainstream and the fear of overusing commas will be “refudiated," just “like, like Valley Girls.””

“[Robert] Goulet struggled with language, wrapped it in hovering and irresolute self-interruptions. Every song he sang was a tractor-pull. In a way, he delivered a song the way John Wayne spoke, like a boar pisses—in jerks. […] It seems to be, but isn’t, a variation of the so-called “Shatner comma”—“You know, exactly, what, I mean”—the condition named after Star Trek actor who parses words out flit-like.”

““Thanks, for, coming, here.” He spoke not with the Standard comma, the Oxford comma, the Walken comma, or the Shatner comma. No, this was something else.”

“Nate made mistakes, too. Just last week, she’d had to fix the Shatner commas in one of his briefs.”

CEFR level