(Bloomberg) When New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer speaks, it?s usually no joke unless he is the guest of honour.

The man who wrested $4.4 billion in penalties from mutual funds and Wall Street banks before turning his sights on the insurance industry draws laughter after-hours by peppering his public appearances with one-liners.

?I just want you to know that based on the distribution of applause, I know where the insurance executives are sitting,? Spitzer said last month at a $750-a-plate black-tie benefit dinner at New York?s Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Spitzer unveiled his insurance-industry probe on October 14, filing suit against Marsh & McLennan Cos., the world?s largest insurance broker, for rigging insurance prices and taking kickbacks. Since then, more than 17 executives have been forced out or suspended at companies touched by the investigation, including American International Group Inc., Ace Ltd. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.

Among the executives to lose their jobs: Jeffrey Greenberg, who resigned as Marsh?s chief executive officer on October 25 after the company?s shares fell 40 percent since Spitzer filed suit.

Michael Cherkasky, who replaced Greenberg as CEO, said November 22 Marsh may settle Spitzer?s claims within a month.

Darren Dopp, a spokesman for Spitzer, said last month that a settlement may cost Marsh more than $500 million. Spitzer, 45, usually writes his own speeches and makes his jokes off-the-cuff, said Dopp. ?He really is enjoying himself,? Dopp said.

The attorney general used his October 27 crack about the muted applause from insurance executives again at lunch the next day before a gathering of law-enforcement officials. This time he added a reference to a subpoena he joked was under a table centrepiece.

James Cramer, the co-host of CNBC?s ?Kudlow & Cramer? programme and a former hedge fund manager, described Spitzer in an e-mailed comment yesterday as ?one of the funniest people I have ever met?.

The two were classmates at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the early 1980s. Spitzer?s humour in private tends to be self-effacing or sardonic, such as calling a critical newspaper article about him ?a great story,? Cramer said in a later interview.

?He doesn?t take himself too seriously,? Cramer said.

E-mail is one source of humour for Spitzer, whose office sifted through electronic messages in the current insurance industry investigation and in its probe of securities firms in 2002, when he alleged analysts tailored research to win investment banking business.

In one message, former Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Henry Blodget called a company a ?piece of junk,? even as he gave its stock a positive rating.

?It is wonderful to be here this evening, because I really want to put faces to all those e-mails,? Spitzer said at an Institutional Investor magazine awards dinner for analysts in November 2002.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld preceded the attorney general as a speaker at the October 28 luncheon. While Seinfeld never mentioned Spitzer, the attorney general riffed that he planned to go home ?and tell my wife and kids Jerry Seinfeld was my warm-up act?.

Spitzer is sometimes introduced by people who interject their own joking comments, ribbing him for political ambitions that may lie behind some of his investigations of banks, mutual funds and insurance companies.

New York County Chief Clerk Norman Goodman introduced Spitzer by saying ?I would like to welcome Governor, I mean Attorney General Eliot Spitzer? during Juror Appreciation Day November 18 at state court in New York.

Spitzer hasn?t declared that he has formally entered the 2006 New York governor race. His campaign committee, Spitzer 2006, had raised $6.88 million as of July, according to the New York State?s Board of Elections.

Spitzer spokeswoman Juanita Scarlett said last month that Spitzer is ?considering a race for governor but has made no final decision or formal announcement?.

At Juror Appreciation Day, Spitzer mingled with actor Matthew Broderick and his wife, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, along with late-night television host Conan O?Brien and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

In the face of such star power, Spitzer?s name still came up several times as various celebrities urged citizens to perform their civic duty and serve on a jury.

Dave Price, the weatherman on CBS-TV?s ?The Early Show,? told would-be jurors not to feel bad if they haven?t yet been picked for a panel during previous stints. ?Don?t worry,? Price said. ?Eliot Spitzer is working hard to change that.?

Former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who is now in private corporate practice at the New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, got into the humour vein while introducing Spitzer at a conference at the Practising Law Institute in New York November 12.

Speaking to a group of lawyers who might find themselves hired to represent corporate or executive clients targeted by Spitzer, White described the attorney general as someone ?I personally and sometimes painfully know.?