31: Barrel - Part 5

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 03:50, 26 January 2015 by 108.162.249.225 (talk) (Transcript)
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Barrel - Part 5
Too good not to happen.
Title text: Too good not to happen.

Explanation

This gives a happy ending to the Barrel series. The flying ferret is from 20: Ferret. The humor is derived from the juxtaposition of two unlike elements - in this case, the contemplative and even dark nature of the Barrel series being resolved through the timely intervention of a comical flying mammal.

The series is probably inspired by the novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Randall is well known to be a fan of this book.

This is the fifth 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

[Boy floating on piece of driftwood in ocean.]
[Zoomed out view of boy floating on piece of driftwood in ocean.]
[Ferret with airplane wings and tail above the ocean.]
[The empty ocean.]
[Flying ferret carrying the boy to safety.]
[Ocean with ferret carrying boy in distance, sun on the horizon.]

Trivia

  • Original Randall comment: "The ferret got to fly, in the end!"
  • This is the thirty-third comic posted to livejournal. The previous was 28: Elefino. The next was 32: Pillar.
  • The sad comment at 25: Barrel - Part 4 implying the harm to the boy and the RIP comment at 20: Ferret imply that the boy has died and joined the ferret.


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Discussion

this series feels like a homage to "The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry". the sketches have the same - quality ( for want of a better word) Arjunsharma (talk) 07:52, 25 March 2013 (UTC)jun

This was also my first thought today when I did look at this comic again. Maybe the Barrel is just the Meteor from "The Little Prince".--Dgbrt (talk) 21:50, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I have to wonder if the flying ferret has anything to do with Richard Bach, a noted aviation author who published a series of flying books called "The Ferret Chronicles" in 2002-2003? --144.92.241.6 21:56, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Should the last trivium be put in the explanation section? 0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101 (talk page) 04:38, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Last panel reminiscent of http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/4 141.101.81.87 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)