Economics professor, Yoram Bauman, finds laughter is the best medicine when it comes to understanding economics.Photo: Andrea Lee
The global economy hasn't given us much to laugh at this year. The US had its triple A credit rating slashed, the eurozone is battling a sovereign debt crisis and China has reason to wonder if it will ever be repaid for its holdings of US Treasuries. Thankfully, one man in Beijing offers a way out of depressing economics and the city's heavy pollution. Yoram Bauman, 37, is a PhD holder and environmental economist at the University of Washington in Seattle who's on a mission to put the "comedy" back into the "economy." While in town for a five-month teaching stint at the University of International Business and Economics, the co-author of The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 1: Microeconomics told the Global Times that he plans to "occupy Beijing" with jokes on public deficit and carbon taxes.
Economics through comedy
Whenever Bauman orders his youtiao (Chinese fried donut) for breakfast, he mulls over the possibilities of puns in a foreign language. "It's like ordering a youtai ['Jew' in Chinese]. Can you imagine ordering a Jew for breakfast?" he joked. A pioneer in his unique field, he is excited about learning Chinese and inspired by phonetic jokes.
"It says online I'm the first stand-up economist in the world, so it must be true," he mused in between bites of his hamburger in Beijing. "I wrote a parody of the ten principles of economics in a popular textbook while I was at graduate school 10 years ago. That's what guys do to blow off steam."
But the parody ended up getting published in science humor journal, Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). "In 2003 I had so much fun presenting the paper at the big science convention that AIR runs every year that I started going down to open-mic nights at a comedy club," he added.
Years and many jokes later, Bauman has a full economics comedy routine and a safe deposit with jokes on other topics when economics doesn't tickle the audience's funny bone.
"In stand-up comedy, there isn't what economists call ‘barriers of entry.' You put your name on the list and you get your minutes. Sometimes it feels like the best thing in the world to make people laugh, while other times you bomb and 10 minutes feel like an hour on stage. It's an art form and you have to craft it," he explained.
Bauman said comedy was initially a way for him to make economics more accessible to people.
"My jokes are intended to make people interested in economics, but I stopped getting gigs from bankers," Bauman joked. Ironically, the global financial crisis heightened the demand for a good laugh among people everywhere.
"Everybody lost money and people were suddenly more interested in economics. On the other hand, all media reports were extremely depressing and people wanted something to laugh about," Bauman noted.
"There's something cathartic and healing about being in a room full of people and laughing together. It makes you feel less of an idiot."
Cultural curb
Bauman makes no jokes about implementing a price on carbon. It's an issue he has campaigned for, despite staunch opposition from major polluting industries. He has his own theory on how to strike the right balance.
"Preferably through a revenue-neutral tax shift involving lower taxes on things we like – such as working, saving and investing – and higher taxes on things we don't like – such as gasoline, coal and oil to avoid carbon and pollution," said the teacher, who lectures on climate change economics.
At his upcoming gig at the Bookworm, Bauman plans to serve up a comedic mix of economics, politics and climate change. He says he's still calculating some Beijing-inspired gags.
"At the moment in the US, the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests are still ongoing. It crossed my mind to go with some jokes like 'Occupy Beijing,' only that might not be such a good idea," he said. Bauman prepared jokes that put the budget deficit, tea and the metric system all on the agenda. But he's also careful to cater gags to a wider audience, so that everyone can share in the laughs.
"An audience with PhDs in economics can get a joke about marginal analysis, but I also need to prepare stuff that don't require calculus," he said.
"I tend to be pretty clean and politically opinionated. I do my best and try making fun of everyone equally. I joke about Americans and Jews because I'm an American Jew, but there are cultural lines and there's a time and place for everything."
Calculating comedy
Why economics is such a dull topic for so many people is a problem Bauman blames squarely on the curriculum in high schools and universities.
"Sometimes it seems like the educational system and textbooks on economics were designed to take away all the interesting stuff in economics, leaving only a heap of dry bones like problems and graphs that hardly captivate people," the professor explained.
It's one of the reasons why Bauman makes light about marginal analysis, game theory and the prisoner's dilemma in his book.
"The novel tries to put the cool stuff back in – the personalities, stories and jokes. I hope the cartoons bridge that gap and help people connect with economics to discover what's cool about it," he said.
Animation sensation
The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 1: Microeconomics is a humorous 200-page book that softens hard concepts to make the hard theory of economics more digestible and witty.
Bauman is already working on a second book on macroeconomics to be released in January 2012. While in Beijing, he hopes to get a taste of local humor.
"I haven't yet got Chinese people to tell me a good joke, but I'm determined to learn some Chinese jokes before I leave," he hinted.
When: Thursday, Oct. 27, 7:30 pm
Where: The Bookworm, Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang district
Admission: From 20 yuan
Online: www.standupeconomist.com