Black comedy is comedy that is sarcastic and/or makes fun of persons, places, or situations. It is an important element of "As I Lay Dying" which adds not only a touch of humor, but also aids the reader in recognizing the highly irrational thinking of the Bundrens. Black comedy points out the disheveled logic of their thoughts through humourous outcomes.
             The opening gives a clear visualization of Cash working towards perfection on his mother's coffin. Cash expends an incredible amount of time in measuring the wood, cutting perfect angles, aligning corners, sanding the rough edges, making sure it is perfect right down to the last square inch. William Faulkner takes this perfected coffin and throws it into a flaming furnace through the misadventures of the Bundrens. The first encounter with the new coffin comes shortly after it has been finished. Vardaman enters the scene with an auger and his mind set on boring air-holes for his dead mother.
             It was not her because it was laying right yonder in the dirt. And no it's all chopped up. I chopped it up. It's laying in the kitchen in the bleeding pan, waiting to be cooked and et. Then it wasn't and she was, and now it is and she wasn't. And tomorrow it will be cooked and et and she will be him and pa and Cash and Dewey Dell and there wont be anything in the box and so she can breath. (66-67)
             Vardaman's thoughts are very jumbled and random, but his thoughts can be followed just enough to interpret them. He belives that his dead mother's existence with a fish which he had caught in a nearby creek. His disheveled train of thought led to a conclusion. The fish (now draining in a bleeding pan) was the embodiement of what was once his mother, and since the fish was still alive, so was his mother. Showing his concern for his mother's lack of air in the coffin, Vardamn takes it upon himself to drill her holes so that she can breathe. The dark humor kicks into this situation when the lid of ...