Clearly joking or not, he was talking to someone who often had trouble discerning when someone was joking.

So yes, he was just going to squint at Frenchie for a beat or two. "Ah," he said finally, taking a sip of his drink. "Exaggeration. For comic effect."

Showed how far he'd come in two ways: one, that he could discern it was a joke at all, and two, that he didn't actually agree with the statement in all seriousness.