The panda problem...

Almost six years ago now, I was posting about the semicolon, and whether it was really essential in modern written English.  But now someone has suggested that the comma is basically superfluous to requirements, and here I have to disagree. The so-called "Oxford comma" could probably be dispensed with - but then, who uses it anyway?  But in general, the comma performs an essential role - as somebody pointed out, there's a wealth of difference between "Let's eat, grandma" and "Let's eat grandma"!