A Tricky “Who”

We grammar curmudgwons tend to like “whom” as the first word in a sentence because it’s often a direct object, even though it doesn’t feel like it. This sentence is different! First word in the second line:

Rearrange the words to put the main clause at the beginning: “You had no idea who was even running…” Yes, this “who” is the subject of the subordinate clause, so it’s correct!

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Because we have direct object, that’s why! The humor is that he’s questioning who is doing the watching, and who is being watched. IOW, he should say “Who’s watching whom?”. The way it’s written, he’s merely repeating his question without saying what they’re watching.

A lot of people use “me” when they refer to themselves at the end of a sentence, but that’s sometimes (maybe often) incorrect. If the sentence has an action verb, then use “me” as the direct object. But if you use a linking verb, you have a predicate nominative, which means you should use “I.”

As this fellow did, first panel:

Pros and Cons for April 14, 2023, in Comics Kingdom.com

Maybe he’s not the fool he says he is!

Yes, Beetle made a grammar error, using “I” where he should have used “me.” But the other guy made a syntax error, causing the ambiguity that gave us the punchline.

What should he have said to remove the ambiguity?

By the way, even Beetle’s correct grammar is tricky. “Me” isn’t a direct object, but the subject of an infinitive (to dig), which takes the objective case!

Last panel. He sounds sophisticated, right?

The problem is that in this sentence, that last word is a direct object, which should be “me.” “It has destroyed me,” not “It has destroyed I.”

If the sentence had had a linking verb, then the last word would have been a predicate nominative, which should be “I.” For example, “She is a better painter than I (am).”

Tricky tricky