Rookie Question: Passing a nested list into a function?

[Brett]

I am trying to pass the value of a nested list into a function (to my "if" 
statement) as follows:

textfilelist = [["titlelist1[x][1]"]]
def idfer(listlength, comparelistlength, list):
        while x < (listlength - 1):
                       while y < comparelistlength:
                            if list == titlelist2[y][1]:
(I cutoff the end to focus on the problem)

#Here i call my function hoping i am passing the value within 
textfilelist[0][0] to my function
idfer(textfilelist[0][1], textfilelist[1][1], textfilelist[0][0])


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I don't if there is a "legal" way to do this, but I would appreciate some 
guidance.

Thanks,

Brett