Professional Insight

What Could Possibly Go Wrong With Actuarial Humor?

By Jim Weiss
Posted on Lifestyle

A while back I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, when a video of a standup comedian caught my attention. It received a lot of engagement from my network. “Our neighbors are super cool, and we’re very close with them,” the comic said in the video. “They all have real jobs … [One of them] is an actuary. I thought that was with birds.” I chuckled and even streamed his Netflix special, “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.” But when I reflected on it afterward I wondered, “Why are actuaries more likely to be the punchline than punchy?”

There is no concrete formula for funny, which may be one reason many actuaries (including myself) often end up on the wrong side of jokes. Studies show the actuarial profession disproportionately attracts introverts.[1] The serious nature of the work does not always call for laughs. Actuaries are scientists, and insurance is the business of helping people through tragedy. Precept I of the Code of Professional Conduct requires actuaries to “act in a manner … to uphold the reputation of the actuarial profession.” If there were a formula for funny, these conditions would not likely be the ideal values to plug into it.

Despite this, I did not need to think long or hard to identify actuaries who bring down the house. At the CAS Spring Meeting, past CAS president Frank Chang, PhD, FCAS — who is VP of applied science at Uber — explained the intricacies of making napalm and “dead grandmother [AI] exploits” to a ballroom packed with actuaries. Melissa Huenefeldt, FCAS — who is a consulting actuary at Milliman and chair of the CAS Professionalism Education Working Group — brought to life “Claire, FCAS,” a Michael Scott styled consultant who “does reasonableness checks in [her] sleep.” Xinyi (Cindy) Hu, ASA, actuarial associate at Mutual of Omaha, opened LinkedIn’s eyes to similarities between underwriting and dieting. Kyle Bartee, ACAS, founder and CEO of Aviator Ops Ally, derisked my soda drinking habit in the middle of an unrelated Zoom call. None were reported for violating the Code (that I know of), and I remember the points they were making better than most I make.

So, I asked Chang whether, like me, he would like to see the profession become funnier. “I would like to see actuaries get better at communication, whether that’s with or without humor,” he replied. “I feel the profession needs to march forward on understanding the message, being partners who can communicate important ideas, [and] having good business judgment on how to get folks aligned on a decision.” But, Chang added, “A message is easier to swallow with a dose of joy.”

What is the most terrible part of your day?

Not everyone strikes comedic gold right out of the gate. “[Humor] is not something you develop immediately,” says Chang. “Some people naturally like to joke, so they get a lot of failures in, and if they get a lot of these reps, then you can figure out what success looks like.” Success takes different forms. According to Bartee, “Even if people are just giving you a courtesy laugh, they acknowledge that you put yourself out there and risked nobody laughing. They appreciate the effort to break the ice, break the tension, and get a conversation started.”

“I’ve gotten some groans and I’ve taken that feedback to heart,” adds Huenefeldt. “But sometimes those groans are just as funny as the laughter.”

Hu likes to wield a particularly pointed icebreaker. Her Actuarial Joke Series on LinkedIn received thousands of reactions — “some laughs, a few groans, and at least one person questioning their life choices,” she says. The first installment dealt with her practice area, but when she navigated into less familiar ones, she started workshopping ideas with AI. “ChatGPT is still in the process of learning human humor, and it’s not 100% there yet,” says Hu. “It’s a great source for brainstorming ideas and sparking creativity, but it’s not capable of delivering final, polished results on its own. It works best as a collaborative tool alongside human input.” So she moved on to people. “At in-person events, I was able to chat with actuaries in all kinds of functional areas. I asked them, ‘What is the most terrible part of your day?’ — not only to gather material, but also as a perfect way to break the ice.”

The question resonates personally with Hu. “During my first 18 years, I used humor as a coping tool [for bullying personalities] because if they said something mean and I reflected it back positively, it lost its sting.” This approach scales from classrooms to boardrooms. Chang gives the example of a negotiation initiated by a 15-minute tirade from one of the sides. The other side paused and joked, “Well that’s a bit of an aggressive way to start a negotiation!” “It took all the tension out of the air,” Chang says. “But it also sent the message, ‘We want to get common ground and starting like that takes away from that.’ Humor defused the situation and got the discussion back on track.”

Feeling alive (or at least not as drained)

Effective quips help ensure key messages and agreements are not locked in conference or Zoom rooms after meetings wrap. “I will admit professionalism is not the most exciting topic, even though I am passionate about it,” says Huenefeldt, whose working group delivers over 100 hours of professionalism programming each year. Her team’s offerings include games such as Professionalism Bingo as well as sketches such as Lights! Camera! Professionalism! (where “Claire, FCAS” was born). “Certain tools help people learn,” she adds. “For example, music is a good way to deliver a message. I know lyrics to songs I learned 30 years ago. Humor is similar. If you can take a topic that is dry or boring and make it more fun, then you’re getting your message in, and people are picking up on it.”

The element of surprise, which is the driving spirit behind most punchlines, also snaps people out of brain fogs that descend on monotonous settings. For example, most attendees at the Spring Meeting didn’t expect Chang to be lecturing about grandmas making napalm, but it perfectly accentuated a broader point he was making about the fragility of AI.

“A little humor here and there can make long meetings feel less painful,” says Hu. “Even a small joke reminds people, ‘We’re still here, still alive — not completely drained.’” However, don’t let the setup drag on long enough for boredom to creep back. “The goal is to give enough context so that people understand what you’re talking about. Deliver the punchline and do it efficiently,” says Bartee. “No one wants to listen to a 30-minute story where the punchline is ‘and then the soda sprayed him in the face,’” he said as I cracked open my second can of soda during our interview. Chang suggests the SUCCESs framework to make ideas “stick” (from the eponymously titled book): simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional storytelling.[2]

Reading the room effectively amplifies success factors. “Picking up on situation-specific things shows you are more malleable, less rigid, and able to roll with the punches,” says Huenefeldt. “For example, it is really powerful when you pick up things other people said earlier and reference them in your own material.” Hu notes pop culture references and analogies also help personalize facts and figures. “Actuarial concepts are rarely concrete, but when you compare them to something from everyday life, people can relate to this better,” she says. “Most people feel the same way about their weight as actuaries do about loss ratios [wanting them to go down without doing work], so they can relate the two.”

Bartee and Huenefeldt both suggest puns as a simple and effective tool to experiment with humor, and one that particularly resonates with actuarial audiences. “Because we have such deep subject matter expertise that not many other people understand, when we’re among other people who understand that nerdiness, we can throw out really nuanced puns,” he says, like “applying CTRL+Z” to retract his own suggestions. While inside jokes likewise abound for broader insurance audiences on topics ranging from trampolines to “policy administration PTSD,” Bartee cautions: “People might not find that funny in other circles. Actuaries see the world in shades of risk.”

Intersection between the 10-year-old mindset and that of an actuary

I asked my personal comedy icons where they have found inspiration. Hu became motivated to develop a joke series after finding joy in actuarial valentines that AR contributor Nate Worrell, FSA, client relationship actuary at Moody’s, posted on LinkedIn. Huenefeldt cites her father’s dry wit as something that influenced her style, while Bartee cites his children. “Dad jokes are my jam. They really kill with an audience of 10-year-olds, and there’s a weird intersection between the 10-year-old mindset and the actuarial mindset,” he says of deadpan humor. Chang is inspired by comics such as Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, and Steve Martin — whose master class he recommends. Streaming or paying closer attention to the humorous people in your life can help you understand your sense of humor and what makes you laugh. A good rule of thumb cited in some comedy tutorials is to make yourself laugh first — if you don’t find your jokes funny, others won’t either.[3]

Hu sees authenticity as a core part of being funny, even if that means being authentically ironic. She states, “My comedic style does not try too hard to cater to other people’s tastes. I just try to be myself. If you find me funny and enjoy it, that’s great. If not, that’s OK. Just move on,” she says. Hu sees the jokes as a reflection of who she is outside of work, and jokes lose their momentum or charm when they feel forced or ingenuine. Huenefeldt similarly advises starting with topics you know well because it allows you to speak more genuinely and improvisationally.

Chang suggests being true to your risk appetite. “If you are at a point in your career where you are trying to move up very quickly, you may have a much tighter risk appetite,” he says. “Some people may also have a lower appetite because they want to present themselves in a way that everything they say has credibility. Those folks won’t try humor, because that seriousness is part of their brand.”

Besides occasional embarrassment or awkwardness when a joke flubs, humor carries additional risks actuaries should factor into their appetite. Self-enhancement, which focuses on everyday situations and good-natured ribbing, is generally viewed as safer than self-deprecation, although the two are not mutually exclusive.[4] “Self-deprecation has a bunch of ways it could go wrong,” says Chang. “One is if it’s not genuine. If your brand is as a leader and you self-deprecate, people may think, ‘That’s not how I see you,’ and it won’t be funny. On the other hand, people could start believing the self-deprecation. You may stop getting assignments because of things you literally said about yourself.”

Prolonging moments of laughter and joy

Our experts generally agree that experimenting with humor, despite its inherent risks, is worthwhile. “Constantly remind yourself that the goal is to make human connections, not business connections,” says Bartee, drawing upon the well-known “yes, and …” comedy technique of piggybacking off others to prolong moments of laughter and joy.[5] “Imagine people sitting around a table, and you’re drawing imaginary lines between two different people whenever you can relate their stories to each other. The more you can do that — the more lines and intersections — the more of a web it becomes. And the more connected that group becomes, the more of a friend social circle that becomes. You make so many different connections with people, and that’s how you bond.”

Consider me appreciative for the four bonds I made while pursuing this article. And, by the way, it turns out someone actually did develop a formula for funny.[6]

Jim Weiss, FCAS, is divisional chief risk officer for commercial and executive at Crum & Forster and is editor in chief for Actuarial Review.