Seeming serious is the key joke with Garrison Keillor surely. Maybe it's the old irony thing cropping up again. I think people over here might actually find him more on our wavelength than some do back home.

Cheerful melancholy, that's his approach to life, and it's one I find very well-judged.

I often prefer to hear a song sung by someone who isn't so good that you start to listen to the singing rather than the song. Or so bad that the same thing happens. Garrison falls into that middle range where the song, especially the words, are what matters.