xkcd.WTF!?

Explanation ➲

This is the first comic in the My Hobby series. In these comics, Randall suggests an obscure activity or pastime he enjoys that he declares as his "hobby". The semi-scatological suffix "-ass" is used as an intensifier in informal US English speech, usually attached to an adjective directly modifying a noun, as in "big-ass car" or "funny-ass comedian." In this comic, Cueball is exploring the increased humor aspect of changing "-ass" from a suffix modifying the adjective, to "ass-", a prefix modifying the noun, yielding a "big ass-car" or a "funny ass-comedian," the former presumably being a large car for carrying buttocks, the latter being a humorous comedian specializing in jokes about lower backs. The prefix "ass-" may also have a negative connotation, indicating that something is disliked. An "ass-car" may be a very terrible car, for example. On an interesting note, there used to be a car company called "A.S.S.". Another explanation would be that, since this suffix/prefix refers to an element of human anatomy, the car would be in the shape of said anatomical piece. (Or, conceivably, something to do with donkeys.)

In the original caption, Randall said the next comic would be the "conclusion" to the The Boy and his Barrel series. However, 25: Barrel - Part 4 would turn out to not be the last comic in the series, as 31: Barrel - Part 5 and 20: Ferret would be included later likely to give an unplanned good ending to the story. Three hours and four minutes after posting 25: Barrel - Part 4, he made a new post, titled Barrel series, where he advertises the new page he created for "all the barrel comics", implying it was supposed to be the end of the series. He also jokingly implies that Barrel Boy passed away, which will be found to be incorrect in the actual last comic in the series. The entire post can be found in that comic's explanation.