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I have a quote in parentheses, and I was wondering whether the comma should go inside the quotation marks or after the closing parenthesis:

Now, with weapons like Laser Lipstick (“gives a whole new meaning to ‘hot pink,’”) he fights crime in drag.

vs

Now, with weapons like Laser Lipstick (“gives a whole new meaning to ‘hot pink’”), he fights crime in drag.

I'm leaning toward the first way, but I just want to know which is more correct.

Jacob
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  • After the parentheses. Why, however, are the words "gives a whole new meaning to 'hot pink'" in quotation marks? Shouldn't the words be preceded by the word "which," in which case the parentheses would not be necessary, but a comma after "Lipstick" would. – rhetorician Dec 09 '13 at 01:35
  • @rhet, it says so in the very first line of the question: the parenthesised phrase is a quote and should therefore be in quotation marks. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Dec 09 '13 at 02:49
  • Gotcha. Don . . . . . – rhetorician Dec 09 '13 at 13:47

1 Answers1

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Assuming everyone is supposed to recognize the quotation about the new meaning of hot pink, and I admit I missed it, the material in parentheses is, well, parenthetical. The role of the comma after the parentheses is to set off the introductory phrase. If you add another comma, the parenthetical information is twice set aside. Of course, I must quote an ancient printer who once told me, "We do it this way because, if we waited for you guys in the front to figure it out, we'd never roll the presses on time."

Michael Owen Sartin
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