Well, that's one on me. I always thought he was a straight ahead kind of guy. Can you give an example?
Think of when he makes an outrageous comment, and then pretends he didn’t realize it. That’s when he’s making an overt joke out of it, but he also does it more subtly as well, when he wants to make a point but not be held accountable for it. He’s laughing at the dummies who don’t get it.
The best overt example was early in his career, when he launched a campaign against women “farding” in their cars. (”Farding,” as he later explained, meaning applying make-up.)
It goes back to his love of practical jokes in his teenage years, and is not uncommon in smart people who like to make inside jokes at the expense of the uninitiated.