Explanation of "I am as smart as I am humble." [closed]

I think that the character is smart, but doesn't want to appear boastful by admitting it. So he humbles himself by declining to give a direct "yes" answer, but by answering as he does he indirectly makes himself out to be smart (since he is as smart as he is humble).

If his answer demonstrated conclusively that he was smart, however, then he could no longer be considered humble, since his demonstration of smartness would lack humility. But his answer does not conclusively entail smartness, since he might be not smart but not humble enough to admit it.

Nevertheless he comes across, paradoxically, as a smartass who is not particularly humble.