diff --git a/lisp/org-babel.el b/lisp/org-babel.el
index 03f3a0b7d..f81b690b2 100644
--- a/lisp/org-babel.el
+++ b/lisp/org-babel.el
@@ -174,13 +174,13 @@ of the following form.  (language body header-arguments-alist)"
 
 (defun org-babel-parse-src-block-match ()
   (list (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 1))
-        (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 4))
+        (org-babel-strip-protective-comas (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 4)))
         (org-combine-plists org-babel-default-header-args
                             (org-babel-parse-header-arguments (org-babel-clean-text-properties (or (match-string 3) ""))))))
 
 (defun org-babel-parse-inline-src-block-match ()
   (list (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 1))
-        (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 4))
+        (org-babel-strip-protective-comas (org-babel-clean-text-properties (match-string 4)))
         (org-combine-plists org-babel-default-inline-header-args
                             (org-babel-parse-header-arguments (org-babel-clean-text-properties (or (match-string 3) ""))))))
 
@@ -334,6 +334,10 @@ non-nil."
   "Strip all properties from text return."
   (set-text-properties 0 (length text) nil text) text)
 
+(defun org-babel-strip-protective-comas (body)
+  "Strip protective comas from bodies of source blocks."
+  (replace-regexp-in-string "^,#" "#" body))
+
 (defun org-babel-read (cell)
   "Convert the string value of CELL to a number if appropriate.
 Otherwise if cell looks like a list (meaning it starts with a
diff --git a/org-babel.org b/org-babel.org
index 58d962a10..f22ba2fdf 100644
--- a/org-babel.org
+++ b/org-babel.org
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ table, allowing the test suite to be run be evaluation of the table
 and the results to be collected in the same table.
 
 
-* Tasks [21/35]
+* Tasks [22/35]
 ** TODO Create objects in top level (global) environment in R?
 *** initial requirement statement [DED]
    At the moment, objects created by computations performed in the
@@ -386,10 +386,6 @@ tabel
 
 Another example is in the [[*operations%20in%20on%20tables][grades example]].
 
-** TODO Remove protective commas from # comments before evaluating
-   org inserts protective commas in front of ## comments in language
-   modes that use them. We need to remove them prior to sending code
-   to the interpreter.
 ** PROPOSED conversion between org-babel and noweb (e.g. .Rnw) format
    I haven't thought about this properly. Just noting it down. What
    Sweave uses is called "R noweb" (.Rnw).
@@ -444,20 +440,6 @@ one that comes to mind is the ability to treat a source-code block
 like a function which accepts arguments and returns results. Actually
 this can be it's own TODO (see [[* source blocks as functions][source blocks as functions]]).
 
-** DONE pass multiple reference arguments into R
-   Can we do this? I wasn't sure how to supply multiple 'var' header
-   args. Just delete this if I'm being dense.
-
-   This should be working, see the following example...
-
-#+srcname: two-arg-example
-#+begin_src R :var n=2 :var m=8
-n + m
-#+end_src
-
-#+resname: two-arg-example
-: 10
-
 ** DEFERRED use textConnection to pass tsv to R?
    When passing args from the org buffer to R, the following route is
    used: arg in buffer -> elisp -> tsv on file -> data frame in R. I
@@ -610,6 +592,31 @@ to the command if BUFF is not given.)
     posterity. Same for a shell session either in a *shell* buffer, or
     pasted from another terminal emulator. And python of course.
 
+** DONE Remove protective commas from # comments before evaluating
+   org inserts protective commas in front of ## comments in language
+   modes that use them. We need to remove them prior to sending code
+   to the interpreter.
+
+#+srcname: testing-removal-of-protective-comas
+#+begin_src ruby
+,# this one might break it??
+:comma_protection
+#+end_src
+
+** DONE pass multiple reference arguments into R
+   Can we do this? I wasn't sure how to supply multiple 'var' header
+   args. Just delete this if I'm being dense.
+
+   This should be working, see the following example...
+
+#+srcname: two-arg-example
+#+begin_src R :var n=2 :var m=8
+n + m
+#+end_src
+
+#+resname: two-arg-example
+: 10
+
 ** DONE ensure that table ranges work
 when a table range is passed to org-babel as an argument, it should be
 interpreted as a vector.