Great post, letters has always loved Venga and when it was fashionable to be open about the love for the guy he was alwasy there make a joke about what others said, now he's a closet fan who pipes up anytime anyone dares say something less than complimentary about him whilst trying to convince others he actually doesn't rate him by using the lines your very correctly highlighted.
In the past he would use the "he's not a bumbling idiot" line, but now that it appears even that is diffcult to use he's found some new material to use.