How to stop comments widget conflicting with theme comments

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You could do this much simpler like this: 

<?php $comments = get_comments('status=approve&number=5'); ?>
<ul>
    <?php foreach ($comments as $comment) { ?>
        <li>
            <?php echo get_avatar( $comment, '35' ); ?>
            <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($comment->ID); ?>#comment-<?php echo $comment->comment_ID; ?>" title="on <?php echo $comment->post_title; ?>"> <?php echo strip_tags($comment->comment_author); ?>: <?php echo wp_html_excerpt( $comment->comment_content, 35 ); ?>... </a>
        </li>
    <?php }  ?>
</ul>

Ok, here’s some code explanations:

  • $comments = get_comments('status=approve&number=5') -> get 5 latest comments
  • get_avatar( $comment, '35' ) -> get and display avatar with 35x35px size
  • get_permalink($comment->ID) and $comment->comment_ID -> get the link to the comment
  • strip_tags($comment->comment_author) -> display comment author
  • wp_html_excerpt( $comment->comment_content, 35 ) -> display the comments up to 35 characters