diff --git a/backend/lib/metadata.js b/backend/lib/metadata.js
index cbeb5e5..0d6e2cd 100644
--- a/backend/lib/metadata.js
+++ b/backend/lib/metadata.js
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ function normalizeTitle(s) {
     .replace(/\s+-\s+([^-]+)$/, ' ($1)')
     // strip all remaining parens/brackets content for the base comparison
     .replace(/[\[(（][^\]）)]*[\]）)]/g, '')
+    // strip punctuation so "Mr. Lawrence" == "Mr Lawrence" and comma variants match
+    .replace(/[,.'!?]/g, '')
+    .replace(/\s+/g, ' ')
     .trim();
 }