[nancyminusone]

At my college, someone got kicked out for yikyacking "gonna shoot all black people a smile tomorrow" and everyone quickly realized exactly how anonymous it really was after the guy was found a few hours later.

Thing is, there was a comma between "people" and "a smile" which made his poorly thought out joke read a lot differently. Dumb way to throw away your education.

[lotsofpulp]

I don’t understand. The “joke” would be if there was no comma. Putting a comma seems like they wanted to cause panic, and feign ignorance later.

[nancyminusone]

Yes, that's what he tried to argue (it was a joke bro) in the lawsuit that followed, to try to get back in. He lost.

Personally, I think he just flubbed it. At the time, memes like "I'm gonna cut you <line break> up some vegetables" were popular. Can't expect a dumbass edgelord to have good grammar.

Either way, it was a stupid thing to do and he paid for it.

[wilsonjholmes]

Crazy Smart (;

Edit for clarity: /s - I went to the same university which had the above slogan.

[pmarreck]

So basically, if he hadn't added the comma, he'd still be at college.

So he got kicked out because of an extra comma, which he added to make it even more edgy, at the cost of reducing plausible deniability to nearly zero.

[alwa]

I’m not sure which college was involved here, but if I were the person adjudicating this, I imagine the outcome would not have hinged on the comma.

[pmarreck]

Well, without the comma it can be entirely plausibly framed as a nice statement, no?

[m3rc]

That is not exactly how disciplinary or legal procedures tend to go. The intention is clear here.

[pmarreck]

Nope, it isn't. Not without the comma. And especially without context.

[myko]

I'm being obtuse but I don't see the comma thing making the "joke" come off differently, what am I missing?

[LeifCarrotson]

The phrase "shooting a smile at someone" means to briefly or quickly glance at someone while smiling. Perhaps "shot a glare in his direction" is more familiar?

Depending on the location of the comma, the speaker is either planning to make happy gestures at people, or killing people with a firearm which makes them happy.

[koolba]

To shoot a smile means to smile at someone. So the pun is that he is going to smile at every black person he sees.