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 thrillingest one that ever was; and so he went on a-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. And—but never mind the rest of his outfit; it was just wild, but it was awful funny. Which best describes the source of the humor in this excerpt?

The answer to the question: Which best describes the source of the humor in this excerpt, would be, the part where the excerpt talks about the king coming walking like an animal and painted in all types of colors, as if he were a jester, instead of a king: "...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... it was just wild, but it was awful funny" .

Explanation:

This is because of the image the small selection offers about a personage who should show rather strong features, and not become the joke of the entire court. This image of such a powerful figure, acting like someone crazy, or like an animal, especially the image of the rainbow colors on the body, humors the always present image of a king who should be strong, and who should lack any weird attitudes.