I was!

[More aggressively than before he gestures at the various half-finished inventions around the courtroom.]

I was serious about plenty of things and look where that got me! Rejected! Denied! Disrespected! No one took me or my inventions seriously.

So I took it up a notch. I made something better.

[Stu kicks idly at some scraps of another Monobear lying near his seat.]

I started being more "serious" like everyone wanted.