diff --git a/tildes/alembic/versions/b9d9ae4c2286_add_comment_excerpt.py b/tildes/alembic/versions/b9d9ae4c2286_add_comment_excerpt.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51ab171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tildes/alembic/versions/b9d9ae4c2286_add_comment_excerpt.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+"""Add comment excerpt
+
+Revision ID: b9d9ae4c2286
+Revises: b424479202f9
+Create Date: 2018-08-28 02:42:48.436246
+
+"""
+from alembic import op
+import sqlalchemy as sa
+from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
+
+from tildes.lib.string import extract_text_from_html, truncate_string
+
+
+# revision identifiers, used by Alembic.
+revision = "b9d9ae4c2286"
+down_revision = "b424479202f9"
+branch_labels = None
+depends_on = None
+
+
+Base = declarative_base()
+
+
+# declare a minimal comments table here - we don't want the migration to be potentially
+# impacted by future changes to the model, so we shouldn't import the real one
+class Comment(Base):
+    __tablename__ = "comments"
+
+    comment_id = sa.Column(sa.Integer, primary_key=True)
+    is_deleted = sa.Column(sa.Boolean)
+    rendered_html = sa.Column(sa.Text)
+    excerpt = sa.Column(sa.Text)
+
+
+def upgrade():
+    op.add_column(
+        "comments", sa.Column("excerpt", sa.Text(), server_default="", nullable=False)
+    )
+
+    # generate excerpts for all existing (non-deleted) comments
+    session = sa.orm.Session(bind=op.get_bind())
+    comments = session.query(Comment).filter(Comment.is_deleted == False).all()
+    for comment in comments:
+        extracted_text = extract_text_from_html(comment.rendered_html)
+        comment.excerpt = truncate_string(
+            extracted_text, length=200, truncate_at_chars=" "
+        )
+    session.commit()
+
+
+def downgrade():
+    op.drop_column("comments", "excerpt")
diff --git a/tildes/consumers/topic_metadata_generator.py b/tildes/consumers/topic_metadata_generator.py
index 7075f9f..fc8fa92 100644
--- a/tildes/consumers/topic_metadata_generator.py
+++ b/tildes/consumers/topic_metadata_generator.py
@@ -3,11 +3,10 @@
 from typing import Sequence
 
 from amqpy import Message
-from html5lib import HTMLParser
 import publicsuffix
 
 from tildes.lib.amqp import PgsqlQueueConsumer
-from tildes.lib.string import simplify_string, truncate_string, word_count
+from tildes.lib.string import extract_text_from_html, truncate_string, word_count
 from tildes.lib.url import get_domain_from_url
 from tildes.models.topic import Topic
 
@@ -37,17 +36,9 @@ class TopicMetadataGenerator(PgsqlQueueConsumer):
     @staticmethod
     def _generate_text_metadata(topic: Topic) -> None:
         """Generate metadata for a text topic (word count and excerpt)."""
-        html_tree = HTMLParser().parseFragment(topic.rendered_html)
+        extracted_text = extract_text_from_html(topic.rendered_html)
 
-        # extract the text from all of the HTML elements
-        extracted_text = "".join(
-            [element_text for element_text in html_tree.itertext()]
-        )
-
-        # sanitize unicode, remove leading/trailing whitespace, etc.
-        extracted_text = simplify_string(extracted_text)
-
-        # create a short excerpt by truncating the simplified string
+        # create a short excerpt by truncating the extracted string
         excerpt = truncate_string(extracted_text, length=200, truncate_at_chars=" ")
 
         topic.content_metadata = {
diff --git a/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss b/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
index ca40275..cf5d5c0 100644
--- a/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
+++ b/tildes/scss/modules/_comment.scss
@@ -13,11 +13,6 @@
     @media (min-width: $size-md) {
       padding: 0.2rem;
     }
-
-    & > time {
-      margin-left: 0.4rem;
-      font-size: 0.6rem;
-    }
   }
 
   &:target > .comment-itself {
@@ -33,12 +28,27 @@
   margin-left: 0.2rem;
 }
 
+.comment-posted-time {
+  margin-left: 0.4rem;
+  font-size: 0.6rem;
+}
+
 .comment-edited-time {
   font-size: 0.6rem;
   font-style: italic;
   margin-left: 0.4rem;
 }
 
+.comment-excerpt {
+  display: none;
+
+  font-style: italic;
+  margin-left: 0.4rem;
+  white-space: nowrap;
+  overflow: hidden;
+  text-overflow: ellipsis;
+}
+
 .comment-nav-link {
   font-size: 0.6rem;
   margin-left: 0.4rem;
@@ -116,9 +126,20 @@
     border-bottom: 0;
   }
 
-  .comment-text, .post-buttons, .comment-replies, .comment-votes, .comment-tags {
+  .comment-edited-time,
+  .comment-nav-link,
+  .comment-posted-time,
+  .comment-replies,
+  .comment-text,
+  .comment-tags,
+  .comment-votes,
+  .post-buttons {
     display: none;
   }
+
+  .comment-excerpt {
+    display: inline-block;
+  }
 }
 
 .is-comment-deleted, .is-comment-removed {
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/lib/string.py b/tildes/tildes/lib/string.py
index b830d03..96df9fc 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/lib/string.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/lib/string.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ from typing import Optional
 import unicodedata
 from urllib.parse import quote
 
+from html5lib import HTMLParser
+
 
 # regex for matching an entire word, handles words that include an apostrophe
 WORD_REGEX = re.compile(r"\w[\w'’]*")
@@ -205,3 +207,14 @@ def separate_string(original: str, separator: str, segment_size: int) -> str:
         separated += char
 
     return separated
+
+
+def extract_text_from_html(html: str) -> str:
+    """Extract plain text content from the elements inside an HTML string."""
+    html_tree = HTMLParser().parseFragment(html)
+
+    # extract the text from all of the HTML elements
+    extracted_text = "".join([element_text for element_text in html_tree.itertext()])
+
+    # sanitize unicode, remove leading/trailing whitespace, etc.
+    return simplify_string(extracted_text)
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
index 580049d..a58f48f 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ from sqlalchemy.sql.expression import text
 from tildes.lib.datetime import utc_now
 from tildes.lib.id import id_to_id36
 from tildes.lib.markdown import convert_markdown_to_safe_html
+from tildes.lib.string import extract_text_from_html, truncate_string
 from tildes.metrics import incr_counter
 from tildes.models import DatabaseModel
 from tildes.models.topic import Topic
@@ -78,6 +79,7 @@ class Comment(DatabaseModel):
     last_edited_time: Optional[datetime] = Column(TIMESTAMP(timezone=True))
     _markdown: str = deferred(Column("markdown", Text, nullable=False))
     rendered_html: str = Column(Text, nullable=False)
+    excerpt: str = Column(Text, nullable=False, server_default="")
     num_votes: int = Column(Integer, nullable=False, server_default="0", index=True)
 
     user: User = relationship("User", lazy=False, innerjoin=True)
@@ -101,6 +103,11 @@ class Comment(DatabaseModel):
         self._markdown = new_markdown
         self.rendered_html = convert_markdown_to_safe_html(new_markdown)
 
+        extracted_text = extract_text_from_html(self.rendered_html)
+        self.excerpt = truncate_string(
+            extracted_text, length=200, truncate_at_chars=" "
+        )
+
         if self.created_time and utc_now() - self.created_time > EDIT_GRACE_PERIOD:
             self.last_edited_time = utc_now()
 
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
index e25c65b..52dfe3d 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/comments.jinja2
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
           </span>
         {% endif %}
 
-        {{ time_ago_responsive(comment.created_time) }}
+        {{ time_ago_responsive(comment.created_time, class_="comment-posted-time") }}
 
         {% if comment.last_edited_time %}
           <span class="comment-edited-time">
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@
           {% if not is_individual_comment %}data-js-comment-parent-button{% endif %}
         >Parent</a>
       {% endif %}
+
+      <div class="comment-excerpt">{{ comment.excerpt }}</div>
     </header>
 
     {% if request.has_permission('view', comment) %}
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/datetime.jinja2 b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/datetime.jinja2
index 7c5887f..f734fb4 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/datetime.jinja2
+++ b/tildes/tildes/templates/macros/datetime.jinja2
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@
 <time datetime="{{ datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ') }}" title="{{ datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC') }}">{{ datetime|ago(abbreviate=True) }}</time>
 {%- endmacro %}
 
-{% macro time_ago_responsive(datetime) -%}
+{% macro time_ago_responsive(datetime, class_=None) -%}
 <time
-  class="time-responsive"
+  class="time-responsive{{ ' '+class_ if class_ else '' }}"
   datetime="{{ datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ') }}"
   title="{{ datetime.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC') }}"
   data-abbreviated="{{ datetime|ago(abbreviate=True) }}"