Which, by the way, is another juxtaposition, because he's saying really funny things, but it's juxtaposed with his delivery, which is total straight man.
But at the same time, they were very scared to alienate their current audience, which is used to seeing a straight, white man back to back to back to back.
He loved comedy and the counterculture of the 1960s but was always the straight man (" He was almost wearing an invisible necktie, " is how someone remembers him at that time).