Surely the colon only makes one meaning clear in both cases, ie that Truss and Coffey are piglets. The comma is redundant in the second example.
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Other than when preceding the second part of a book title, I have invariably found the use of the grammatical colon to be a needless complication as it can so easily be replaced by the use of one or two additional words.
Two contented piglets, namely, Truss and Coffey.
Of course, skillful humour often relies upon the deliberate misleading use of language to cause the reader to jump to a conclusion that is not actually stated.
There is the possibility that the women in the photo are holding piglets which are actually named after themselves, but of course that understanding would not be likely to raise a smile.
Indeed so, which is exactly why the caption writer, not wishing to be sued for slander, decided not to use the grammatical colon.
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My punctuation is bad but I will not get upset about it.
In this very difficult world spelling and punctuation the least of our problems.
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Precisely !
Now imagine @vero 's foregoing tweet image with no punctuation marks at all:
Two contented piglets
Truss and Coffey
Makes no difference at all to the intended meaning, does it ?
Perhaps @Flocreen is right - itās a pointless discussion.
And had I written āits a pointless discussionā that would have made no difference to the meaning either, would it ?
I recommend Labovās The Logic of Non-Standard English - a study of how people imagine following the conventions of standard English aids sense - when in fact non-standard variants are often more logical - and indeed that the real function of standard as opposed to non-standard variants has little to do with communicating sense, but quite a lot to do with bearing social class distinctionsā¦
The voice of reason 
I was seeing an acupunctuationist. There was a big question mark over his ability.
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Colon problem ?
Enlarged ellipsisā¦
Watch out you may end up in a comma
Try not to be bracketted together.
oooo Hinge and Bracket 
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My daughter learned to parse a sentence for her Masters degree. I learned it in primary school.
Should there be an apostrophe in āMastersā?
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Yes I remember coming across them when I had my management company in Chelsea.
Is punctuation just a bit snobby???
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certainly is !
That would depend upon your intended meaning.
Masters degree. A degree issued by someone called Masters.
Mastersā degree. A degree possessed by a Master.
Aā degree possessed by Aā master would surely be Masterās not Mastersā?
Therein lies the rub!!
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In the UK I was a Master Builder and belonged to the Federation of Master Builders. I was the president of the Yorkshire and Trent region of Master Builders, how is that punctuated?
Iād suggest an upper case R in region, but apart from that, it is not lacking any punctuation.
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[quote=ābarbara_deane1, post:96, topic:41059ā]
I had my management company in Chelsea. Is punctuation just a bit snobby???
A reference to owning a āmanagement company in Chelseaā seems a tad snobbier than worrying about a misused apostrophe!
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