Smirky's Law

Smirky's Law (also known as Smirky's Rule of Grammar Hubris or Smirky's Law of Nitpicking Incompetence) is a humorous observation made by whatsthatonyourback in 2010 which describes a commonly occurring gaffe in the world of internet discussions. It states: "As an online discussion descends into argument AbOUT spelling and grammar, the probability of each contribution to this debate including spelling and grammar mistakes approaches 1." and is based on Godwin's Law.

History

The law itself was formalised on 8th March 2010 but has been a commonly observed phenomenon since the start of the internet. Naming the law serves as a convenient shorthand for the regular incidence of spelling and grammatical errors occurring in internet discussions complaining about the poor quality of spelling and grammar.

The law is named after "SMIRKY" after they posted a comment that typified the law, prompting a plea for an equivalent of Godwin's Law from the user Findus.