Because I didn’t. I’m a solid 1/4 into the book, and I had NO idea. It seems SO dark to me. I mean, It’s a great book. It’s deep and very artistic; but DAMN. It’s such morbid humor, and SO hard to read. Like, Dante’s “Inferno” read easier than this. Ah, well. I suppose I’ll be proud of myself when I’m done.
It’s actually not meant to be that humorous at all, if by “It’s meant to be funny” you’re referring to the authorial intent. DFW made this clear, as indicated by this interview .
The bits of humor come as a sort of byproduct of DFW sidestepping the overarching sadness of addiction, as if to not overdo it (though it can be argued—not by me necessarily, but by someone—that a 1,000+ page tome is overdoing it.)
