Der Sturm vol. 11 no. 3, page 36
The pattern
This still is filed under Exhibit in the column.
Define
An image is dropped into the column of type so the reader meets picture and argument in one scan.
Mechanism
In-flow exhibit. The figure is not a separate see fig. 2. It starts the paragraph. Eye and mind start together.
Verdict
Long copy must show as well as tell: a product cutaway, a before/after, a map in the story.
Why it works
The insult is not denied, it is accepted and amplified - Schwitters shows Servaes the soles of his shoes and introduces himself as the worst cobbler alive, which disarms the attack by removing its target. The advertising fragments work as a running gag with rhythm: 'Zelluloidkapsel mit Messer entfernen' and the corset copy come back three and four times, so the reader starts anticipating them, and the mechanical repetition mocks both the press and the ads that pay for it. The chiastic exchange - your pictures are nicer than you, your reviews are nicer than you - is the structural joke the whole page is built to deliver.
Steal this when
Use this when someone has attacked you with a specific label and you want to defuse it: accept the label literally, then act it out until it becomes absurd. The repeated bracketed refrain is worth stealing for any piece that wants a comic drumbeat without a formal device like a subhead.