25: Barrel - Part 4

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:36, 11 February 2015 by Reywas (talk | contribs) (Transcript)
Jump to: navigation, search
Barrel - Part 4
:(
Title text: :(

Explanation

In the first three comics of the series, the character explored the ocean in a barrel and then encountered a whirlpool, all with a reaction of innocent wonder. Here, the empty barrel floating adrift, plus the title text and a previous announcement by Randall that this would be the conclusion of barrel boy's story, imply that the character's encounter with the whirlpool brought him to some harm.

This is the fourth in a five-part series of comics whose parts were randomly published during the first several dozen strips. The series features a character that is not consistent with what would quickly become the xkcd stick figure style. The character is in a barrel.

The full series can be found here:

Transcript

[The barrel is shown on a grid paper background, floating sideways and empty in a choppy sea.]

Trivia

  • This is the twenty-sixth comic originally posted to livejournal. The previous was 37: Hyphen. The next was 26: Fourier.


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

The title text suggests that something bad has happened, not simply that he is swimming elsewhere or that Randall is disappointed the boy is no longer floating in the barrel. Grahame (talk) 05:30, 18 October 2013 (UTC)Grahame

Fixed. 108.162.216.45 02:54, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
The title text suggests unhappiness at the knowledge that the boy is apparently no longer inside the barrel that has been preserving his life so far. We can speculate that something bad has happened, but a sad smiley does not do that for us. 108.162.219.58 01:12, 1 February 2014 (UTC)
Agreed - the sadness could be that the boy has embarked on a new stage of his adventure, and we're not able to follow it.141.101.76.16 10:28, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
I'd agree with you. Your metaphor reminded me of possibly moving out or a loved one's death. -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 21:26, 10 March 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

@Koolkat38: Updated the link you added to the Barrel series, to be more direct, in all the instances. Though this might have been unnecessary given the exact same link is mentioned in the lower part of the explanation. Still, good to think of, and perhaps the latter (original) link is now unneccesary. 141.101.98.77 12:56, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Repeated vandalism

Page history suggests this article has been vandalized multiple times within past weeks, with no recent legitimate edits. Article should be locked. 172.70.214.185 17:13, 26 May 2022 (UTC)