A Variety headline posted on social media drew some laughs recently. "Trammell Tillman on 'Severance' Delays, Coming Out as Gay and Tom Cruise."

"He's gay AND Tom Cruise?" one observer mused. "He really can do it all."

It's the kind of phrasing Oxford comma fans love to seize on because it affirms their belief that their preferred punctuation is superior. You see, if there had been one more comma -- an Oxford comma -- no one would have read it the funny way. See for yourself.

"Trammell Tillman on 'Severance' Delays, Coming Out as Gay, and Tom Cruise."

That comma before "and," called an Oxford comma or serial comma, makes it impossible that the name Tom Cruise was an object of the phrase "coming out as." There's literally no way the writer could have meant that Tillman was coming out as Tom Cruise.

That's a great argument for the Oxford comma. But there's a flaw in this point of view that overeager Oxford comma fans might miss: The headline was 100% unambiguous without the extra comma. There was only one possible meaning, only one role the name Tom Cruise could play here -- it's an object of the preposition "on," not an object of "coming out as." And the reason we know this has to do with the lack of the word "and" after the word "delays."

"And" has a special job signaling the last item in a list. We don't say, "I ate beans, rice." We say, "I ate beans and rice." We don't say "I ate beans, rice, vegetables." We say, "I ate beans, rice and vegetables." No matter how many food items you add to my meal, the last one will be teed up with the word "and."

The Oxford comma is the one that goes before the "and" preceding the last item in a list of three or more things: beans, rice, and vegetables. But this comma is not required. Lots of editing styles, notably the Associated Press, don't use it, writing instead "beans, rice and vegetables."

With that in mind, let's look at the Variety headline: "Trammell Tillman on ..." What follows could be one thing, two things or 100 things. But if it's more than one, we know that the last one will be preceded by "and."

There's just one "and" in the headline -- the one before Tom Cruise's name. The "and" tells us that Tom Cruise is the final item in a list of things the interview is "on." The interview is Tillman on X, Y and Tom Cruise. So Cruise's name can't be a thing Tillman "came out as."

Now imagine that the comma after "delays" were replaced by an "and." That would signal that the interview is "on" just two things: show delays and coming out. In that case, there would be no other role for Tom Cruise in that sentence than to be a thing that Tillman came out as.

No Oxford comma is needed to ensure this headline has just one possible meaning. But would an added comma be better anyway?

As an editor who works in Associated Press style, I avoid Oxford commas. But I'm also keenly aware of AP's rule that says anytime an Oxford comma would aid comprehension -- or even just prevent a momentary misreading -- use one.

This comes up a lot in lists in which one of the list items contains its own "and." For example, if you're listing sandwiches and the last one is "ham and cheese," I'd write it like this: "Their sandwich selection includes tuna, turkey, and ham and cheese." That way, no one thinks for a moment that you serve a cheeseless ham sandwich and a hamless cheese sandwich.

Oxford comma fans who say their preferred punctuation is necessary to make meaning unambiguous are wrong. But those who say that this comma sure can help at times are right.