Someone on Reddit was trying to identify the fibre their yarn was made from, and someone suggested burning a bit of it since burning hair/wool has a very distinctive smell, while acrylic yarn will melt. The following conversation ensued after this burn test was carried out.
OP: It did in fact smell like ass.
Commenter A: I am not being sarcastic when I ask this: do you guys mean literal ass? Or does it have a specific smell thats just bad
Commenter B: They are being quite literal. Burning wool and hair smell awful.
As further comments noted, if your literal ass literally smells of burning hair, you have issues to deal with that are more pressing than what your yarn is made of. Commenter A is clearly asking whether the smell is the same smell as that of ass: in other words, is like ass to be taken literally as meaning the same as ass. Commenter B meant something like 'The apparently extreme description of the badness of this smell is not an over-reaction; it really is very very bad and the intensifier 'literally' is appropriate here'. In other words, they meant that like ass was to be taken literally as meaning as bad as ass.
I suppose it's not dissimilar to the phrase He works like a dog: it could mean that he is easily distracted, highly motivated by treats and responds to whistling (=the same as a dog), but more likely means that he works hard for little reward (=as much as a dog).
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