CHASKA, Minn. -- Europe's defeated players and officials may have been trying to mask their disappointment, but when asked to give their views on Ryder Cup week on Sunday night they produced something close to a comedy routine.
The show took place at the final media conference and there were some serious points made. Rory McIlroy insisted his side's fans should not consider "retaliation" in France in 2018 after the American supporters' behaviour here, and Justin Rose criticised the Hazeltine National course set-up on Sunday as being like that for a Pro-Am.
But as the players drank while seated on the stage, and joked among themselves, the flippant responses were at least as many as the serious.
The biggest laugh from the assembled media was when Danny Willett was asked to sum up his first Ryder Cup experience, from his brother's poorly judged blog to his underwhelming competition performance.
"S---," he said loudly before draining some more of his beer. "Sorry, did you want me to elaborate? Really s---."
The whole of Team Europe loved that and were still passing on their approval when the proceedings were over 15 minutes later.
There was more, though. When it was put to the players that they wouldn't be throwing their coach "under the bus" as the Americans, and more specifically Phil Mickelson, did with Tom Watson in 2014, McIlroy quickly interjected: "Not yet." Darren Clarke quipped: "I'll leave if you want me to."
McIlroy took centre stage, as he had for the team on the course so much this past week, and became so much like the team's unofficial spokesman, he ended up trying to deflect some of the questions.
Having seriously addressed the issue of crowd behaviour at Hazeltine and highlighted how early fans had started drinking each day, he was asked whether something should be done to restrict access to alcohol at future events.
"Not with their pissy beer, no," McIlroy said. "People are here to have a good time. I don't know how you could police that or limit that in any way, telling people they can't drink until 11:00 in the morning, they are just going to go and buy six beers.
"Geez, I know if I was watching the Ryder Cup, I would want to do the same thing. I mean, I'd love to be on the other side of the ropes giving other people abuse, it would be so good. But unfortunately, I have to play inside the ropes, and that's a great privilege to have."
Given all that has gone on in the past week, some of the answers were perhaps a little ill-judged. The explanation, or defence, would be at that stage of the evening, and of the event, they were just letting off steam and trying to relax with all the pressure finally gone.
They were disappointed of course, but if anyone was expecting a downbeat, sombre atmosphere they would have been surprised. Maybe there was some bravado, and a bit of a defence mechanism kicking in, but gallows humour certainly prevailed.
Sergio Garcia, bless him, repeatedly tried to get in on the act, joking with his teammates and commenting on proceedings regularly without getting the response he clearly so desperately wanted.
Vice captain Ian Poulter was ribbed for seemingly being glued to twitter and Willett rolled his eyes when Sam Torrance was asked to remember one of his glory days. Others, particularly Matt Fitzpatrick and some of the other rookies, mostly sat quietly, looking a little bewildered.
Lee Westwood got a laugh, though. Again, it was on the subject of crowd behaviour. Having just referenced how the American team seemed embarrassed by some of its supporters, he said: "On a good point, I got called a t--- yesterday, which is the first time since I was about 12 years old, so it made me feel young again."
Whether he or any of the others on Team Europe would feel youthful on Monday, was another matter.