The mocking tone was an affectation of of the times, and not only in folk music--perhaps a convergence of cold war tensions and post-McCarthy suspicion--there was a tendency to posturing and pretense; people wanted to seem to be part of what was happening, and if it turned out that it wasn't really what was happening, they needed to be able to disown it quickly.

It was a time of feigned sophistication--Being irreverent, and dissmissive gave one an air of sophistication--