From what I have heard about Arthur Godfrey, these lyrics might not be as "playful" and "in jest" as one would think.
Godfrey, from many accounts, was a genuine American phony...folksy, friendly Uncle Arthur to the world...quite something else in private.
Steve Allen used to do a bit for years on The Tonight Show and beyond where he would read the lyrics of popular rock n roll songs in complete dead pan without music.
For example:

"Bee Bop A Loo La, She's My Baby"...long pause, (audience giggles)...
"Bee Bop A Loo La....I Don't Mean Maybe"...Allen looks at the camera
with an "are you kidding me?" look on his face and the live audience
bursts into laughter as he slowly shakes his head in apparent disgust.

Allen could have done something similar with this song.
Reading these lyrics without music, they look like they were written
by a demented hermit living somewhere in the Ozarks.