In this article ...

Esperanto and Esperantism

... by David K. Jordan (of of Being Colloquial in Esperanto fame) is the following footnote:

A satire (Iltis, n.d.) during the 1960s is said to have provoked the widely quoted (and parodized) response from Ivo Lapenna, the humorless UEA president of the time: "Defeatism is not permissible at any level of a battling movement like ours."

Humorless? That's a bit rough.

Especially when looking at this lengthy talk ...

Cent Jaroj de Parola Esperanta Kulturo

... where there seem to be more than a few moments of laughter.

Obviously, Lapenna would have been out of place as a stand-up comedian, but "humorless"? It looks otherwise to me.

Was there some sort of background of rivalry between Jordan and Lapenna? Or something else going on?