When you do complex high-end layouts like magazines and catalogs for a living, absolutely no detail escapes you (or your peers). You see details and relationships most people, even those generally artistically inclined, just don’t. Most designers, given the choice of bumping something one millimeter this way and missing a joke or two millimeters that way and making a visual… pun, joke, snark, quirk - will do the latter. And deny it with a straight face.
It also pays off when there are good reasons NOT to introduce any kind of potential insult into a layout, such as juxtapositions of ethnically, socially or politically sensitive components.
But I’ve only been doing this for about 30 years, so if any real experts want to correct me, please do.
I know lots of nerds, even more nerds than violent people. I wouldn’t say playing the “Hey, look at this picture! See the funny thing? See it yet? I’m not gonna tell you until you see it!” game is any way a common attribute among them.
Oh, come on. You’ve been around here almost as long as I have, and it’s not at all uncommon to post a “discovery” like this, with an OP followup after the first round of posts. If the collective attention span is only long enough to click a spoiler link, I’ll try to keep that… oh, look, giraffes!
Of course it’s common on this board. And every time I see one, I think “Oh Christ, another annoying pseudo-clever post”. You claim it’s more “fun” for people to figure out whatever nonsense you’re reading into a picture by themselves. I believe the majority of the population disagrees. And at least in person, after looking at whatever stupid picture said annoyer is showing you, you can ask them what the hell they’re talking about. On a messageboard you’ve got to wait until they deign to return and tell you.
So I don’t think it’s nerd shaming. At best, it’s “insufferably arrogant and annoying behavior shaming”, which, not unexpectedly, I think we need more of.