2.2 Awkward Changes
Black humor is a typical style in postmodernism. Black humor is inevitable result of American society, politics and moral development. Also, it is in accordance with basis discipline of literature development. An American criticism said, in the sixty, modernism and experimentalism wave have a subtle relationship with social disaster. Eventually, black humor fiction published. There is no doubt that modernism cast away 20-year art predicament, then it form a new art trend.

Mark Twain is the earliest ancestor of black humor. In his works, many black humor elements and details are included. He uses comedy and ridiculous skills to describe tragedy such as death and weird events. The selected part is of the 29th chapter. In this part, it describes that a succession of absurd events which is typical black humor. The two cheaters decide to act in downtown. Unexpectedly, their terrible performance has gotten $400. At the end of the novel, the cheaters are punished.

WELL, all day him and the king was hard at it, rigging up a stage and a curtain and a row of candles for footlights; and that night the house was jam full of men in no time. When the place couldn't hold no more, the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrilling one that ever was; and so he went on bragging about the tragedy, and about Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; and at last when he'd got everybody's expectations up high enough, he rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, ring streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a rainbow. Although the duke and the dauphin’s show is complete farce, brief and insubstantial performance, the audience is grossly overcharged. Audiences own selfishness and vindictiveness make the play successful.  They don't warn other townspeople not to go to see the terrible show. The people in the town have display vindictiveness rather than selflessness. Obviously, the world is hopeless and illogical.

And -- but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, but it was awful funny. The people most killed themselves laughing; and when the king got done capering and capered off behind the scenes, they roared and clapped and stormed and haw hawed till he come back and done it over again, and after that they made him do it another time. Well, it would make a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. 《爱丽丝漫游仙境》现代主义解析(4):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_4775.html