University of Washington economics Professor Yoram Bauman in front of the Seattle comedy club where he makes regular stand-up comedy appearances. ‘It’s all about establishing low expectations,’ he jokes.

People say there’s nothing funny about economics. Yoram Bauman knows differently, but he’s glad most people don’t. The thirty-something PhD, who teaches at the University of Washington, is billed as the world’s first and only stand-up comedian economist.

A funny economist? “It’s all about establishing low expectations,” laughs Bauman from his home in Seattle. “I have instant credibility in the low expectations department, so any time you say anything remotely funny people are going to laugh.

“There’s a total stereotype for economists and accountants – that they’re bland and have no personality. Whenever you have a strong stereotype there’s good comedy potential because you have things you can create contrasts with.”

Bauman got his stand-up start after a parody he did in graduate school on Harvard Professor N. Gregory Mankiw’s introductory textbook, Principles of Microeconomics. Bauman took Mankiw’s 10 principles of economics and interpreted them in his own style.

Bauman’s parody was printed in The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), a bi-monthly scientific satire magazine that annually gives out the Ig Nobel Awards for “achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think.”

In 2004, when the Improbable Research Show appeared at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle, Bauman was invited to be part of it. He was billed just below another speaker who promised to reveal the truth about jelly molecules.

“I had so much fun,” said Bauman, “that I felt I needed to take it down to the comedy club and see how it went.”

Bauman quickly learned that the intellectual humour he was doing in front of scholarly types was one thing, but that “doing comedy in front of drunken frat boy types is very different.”

But he was hooked, and that meant expanding his comedy repertoire. His comedic prominence took another giant leap when a video of his 10 principles was posted on youtube.com. Just over two months later the video had been viewed more than 138,000 times.

“On YouTube, you just click the play button and sit there and watch it,” explained Bauman on why the routine took off suddenly, despite having been in print for a couple of years.

Bauman has parlayed that one-time comedy appearance into a weekly gig at The Comedy Underground in Seattle that he organized, hosted and appeared in, called Non-Profit Comedy.

Each week a different non-profit organization benefits, and is in charge of bringing some of the people to the club. In return they get a share of the proceeds.

“They’re great audiences,” said Bauman. “Sometimes they’re a little hesitant, but they come around. It’s fun to show people that comedy can be intelligent and thoughtful.”

The quest to be intelligent and thoughtful is what started the process in the first place with AIR. “We published it happily. It’s a wonderful and wise essay,” said AIR editor Marc Abrahams. “And it’s much clearer than most writing about economics.”

Abrahams said Bauman was “a big hit” at the Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

“The world is so full of things that most of them get little or no attention. Sometimes, this is the only way that people notice a thing that’s unusual.”

The accounting field has not gone unnoticed by AIR. In a column Abrahams, recounted a European study which compared “punks and accountants,” and their propensity towards conformity. Guess which group was most likely to conform?

“Most people who do research find that almost no one pays attention to it,” said Abrahams. “So some researchers are happy at the fact that, for once, a lot of people are at least looking at their work and thinking about it.”

Bauman, who has a BA in mathematics to go with his PhD in economics, isn’t always a barrel of laughs while teaching, although he believes “humour can be a valuable way to get things across in the classroom.

“There are somewhat limited opportunities for being funny in the classroom, but I do my best,” said Bauman. “If you find space or can give a funny example that’s great, but it’s not always possible to do that. Students appreciate the effort, just the fact that you’re trying to make a human connection with people, and it’s not all just formulas that are in my brain that I’m trying to put in your brain. It makes it easier for people to relate to you, I think.”

What’s more satisfying, a knock-em-dead comedy performance or a well-taught class? “There’s a bigger rush doing the comedy,” said Bauman. “If you have 200 people laughing like crazy, there’s nothing in teaching that really compares to that. But the teaching is deeper and the highs last longer, especially if the students are engaged with the material.

“The thing that’s terrible with comedy,” continued Bauman, “is you’re only as good as the next night you’re on stage. I’ve been heckled some and had my share of bombs – that comes with the territory. There’s no way to do new material without bombing. I just try it and you know that 10 per cent of it is going to have potential and 90 percent of it is garbage.”

Bauman has authored or co-authored three books: Tax Shift, Quantum Microeconomics, and Quantum Microeconomics with Calculus. He would like to rewrite Quantum Microeconomics to make it a funny introduction to the field. “The world could do with something like that and I feel I could be the person to do it.”