Reminded me of Chip Kidd’s TED talk I saw a long time ago, which had the following story:
First day of my graphic design training at Penn State University, the teacher, Lanny Sommese, came into the room, and he drew a picture of an apple on the blackboard and wrote the word "apple" underneath, and he said, okay — lesson one, listen up. And he covered up the picture, and he said: you either say this, and then he covered up the word, or you show this.
But you don't do this:
Because this is treating your audience like a moron. And they deserve better.
That cartoon is far from the worst example of its kind; in fact, it may be quite decent; but it bluntly explains the joke, and the reader deserves better.
