Answer: D. To convince the reader that Huck's father has the ability to be funny.
Explanation: Twain was a realist and thus, portrayed the social follies like child abuse, slavery by putting a human face Pap to it and balancing it with the humor. Here, Twain conveys to the audience the materialism of pap as he got drunk and acts humorous to convince Huck to return in order to pursue his avarice. Thus, the use of humor here is to depict the money-grubbing nature of him and after this incident his character seem to be even less sympathetic and more gluttonous for money. Twain has sarcastically implied humor to present the dark reality of their life at the time of civil war where money remained the root cause of all evils.
