This morning I republish a very short piece about my pet peeve against stating the obvious. Before I do that, let me get another pet peeve out of my system—the ludicrous use of “going forward” in America, particularly by TV talking heads.
Going forward is intrinsic to existence. Every moment is either now or going forward. It is a laughably redundant expression and needs absolutely no stating. So “going forward” please drop saying “going forward.”
June 7, 2016
As you can obviously see the cartoon is about a man coming to an office and asking the receptionist if he can state the obvious there. This is notwithstanding that there is a whole noticeboard that says “Do not state the obvious here. It has already been stated.”
The receptionist whose face resembles the man in Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ points out the sign exasperatedly.
Although the cartoon is self-explanatory and therefore obvious, I have still explained it or, in other words, stated the obvious. Get it? Stating the obvious.
* In case you have not noticed, I am stating the obvious in describing a cartoon about stating the obvious.