Hey, I'm the writer who wrote the second example cited here -- very good point in showing the difference between the two, so I wanted to try and clarify.

When Graham said the "hardly any" line on stage, it drew a pretty big laugh from the audience -- it seemed like a bit of humor on his part. The earnest meaning and connotation I took from that (and comments Graham gave off-stage) was that there were no obvious weak links in this batch.