The humor in "The Drunkard" arises from both the observation of and the distortion of life. The narrator's thought process is sharp, articulate, and incredibly accurate as he describes the out-of-body feeling of "looking at oneself" and eventually becoming embarrassed—a feeling that anyone who has ever been drunk will recognize immediately. It is this concise description of complex and familiar feelings that contributes humor through the observation of reality.Furthermore, the story derives humor from distortion of reality based on the dubious, if not impossible, state of the narrator. With just one pint of lager, he is transformed from a child to the most wizened, archetypal drunkard. He describes the state of being drunk in a way that would be far fetched for his young mind, and he swears so expertly at the onlooking women of the town that we, the readers, can understand (or even join in) their uncontrollable laughter.
Much of the humor in "The Drunkard" comes from the narrative voice of Larry who, without any change in idiom, goes from child to drunkard (and connoisseur of the effects of alcohol) within a few lines. Any reader will understand Larry's perspective when he takes his first mouthful of porter and thinks in disgust that lemonade is a vastly superior drink (even resolving to tell his father about lemonade, in case he has never tried it).
Almost immediately, though, Larry feels "elevated and philosophic," and in the next paragraph, he is holding forth on the wonderful effects of a drink (that he first tried moments ago) which makes one "float aloft like a cherub rolling on a cloud." By the time he has finished the pint, however:
that phase too had passed; I found it hard to put back the glass, the counter seemed to have grown so high. Melancholia was supervening again.
The comic effect here is caused by the all-too-familiar effects of alcohol being described with analytical surprise by a child experiencing them for the first time. We know what is coming when Larry does not. The source of this humor, therefore, is the acute observation of life.
The humor in this story comes from the realistic observation of life rather than the distortion of it. When Larry drinks his father's beer in the pub, unbeknownst to his father, he inadvertently puts an end to his father's drinking (just as his mother hoped he would, though not in quite the way she expected). Larry gets incredibly drunk and then acts like a tiny drunkard—he is, perhaps, the drunkard referenced by the title and not his father—throwing up repeatedly and mouthing off to the old women as his father walks him home. Mick, Larry's father, is forced to care for him, forced to clean him up and clean up after him, and to cover for his son's behavior when others stare and laugh. What is so humorous is that Mick gets a taste of what it is like to have to care for a drunkard, and he promptly returns to work the next day, presumably intending not to drink anymore. This reversal, when Mick must take care of someone else who is drunk, teaches him not to do it, and this realistic observation of life creates the humor in the story (in addition to Larry's hilarious drunken behavior—well, hilarious to the reader, but not to his father).
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