anchor: And if he sometimes wandered into whimsy--that alluring comic swamp--and even farther, into mawkish sentimentality with Happiness Is a Warm Puppy, he more often executed that most difficult comic turn, being simultaneously funny and sweet.
positive: He could sometimes be whimsical, but he was more often executing the difficult comic turn of being both funny and sweet at the same time.
negative: He may have been funny, but he was also rude and nasty.