Book review: THE ULTIMATE ACTUARIAL JOKE BOOK (John Lee)

John Lee, whose two books Actuarial Fairy Tales and Confessions of an Actuarial Tutor I have previously reviewed on my blog, continues with his streak of actuarial high jinx with his latest offering, The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book. I was entertained greatly by those two creations, so I expected more comedy from this book, not least because it is, quite literally, compendium of jokes.

It certainly didn’t disappoint. The book features a wide variety of types of jokes formats, from zingy one-liners, jokes that follow classic ‘knock knock or ‘Doctor, Doctor’ formats, visual comedy in the form of memes, or gags that require more of a build-up because the punchline is delivered. By mixing the way the jokes are delivered, this means reading The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book never gets stale, with the reader kept on their toes.

One aspect that I enjoyed of John’s previous two offerings, was the observational humour aspect. After all, most good humour is underpinned by things that are grounded in reality, just dialled up for comedic effect. On that, John regales the negative points of working as an actuary, such as leaving work at 5pm counting as a half-day for us. Just like in Actuarial Fairy Tales, there are gags about the great personal sacrifices that student actuaries have to make in order to obtain their FIA qualification, and the fact that to ensnare maths graduates into the actuarial fields, companies probably fibbed to them about just how much work it would be.

Also like in Actuarial Fairy Tales, some of the wit in The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book is very specific, and requires understanding of actuarial concepts that would be acquired through studying for the exams. Concepts such as incurred but not reported claims and censored data are mentioned in the book, and R and Excel commands even get a mention.

In Confessions of an Actuarial Tutor and Actuarial Fairy Tales, accountants were the butt of several of the jokes. In the name of equity, John Lee allows accountants the chance to get their own back, in a section named ‘Accountants on Actuaries’, where there are riffs on how accountants perceive actuaries (namely, that we’re dull). However, this lasts just one page, and we’re immediately back to the good stuff: ‘Actuaries on Accountants’, which features all of the John Lee classics, including sly digs about how accountants wouldn’t be able to pass actuarial exams (it’s funny cos it’s true).

The jabs at accountants, and then elsewhere, at underwriters, insurance salesmen and lawyers, are among my favourite jokes in the book. An intellectual superiority complex is a vice that I admit that I fall foul to, and whilst making fun of accountants would be considered low-hanging fruit by actuaries, it is still something that I derive great satisfaction in doing (hey, there has to be some perks to toiling for the exams!)

The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book contains a healthy dose of pop culture references, including to the likes of Queen, The Godfather and James Bond, which appealed to me. There are some hysterical plays on words, my favourite being a joke about an actuarial student asking a qualified actuary if they could do a ‘Mike from Suits’ and sit their exams for them. John Lee also wrings plenty of repartee from the frustrating tendency of actuaries to take everything literally.

Where The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book differs from its predecessors is that, somewhat unsurprisingly given this is a joke book, the comedy in here is noticeably more blue. An early segment of the book steps into 12A-rated innuendo, with jokes like ‘actuaries do it on random walks’, before the section ‘Actuarially Rude Jokes’ ditches the veneer of propriety altogether and dishes out its best bawdy banter with relish. Given that one would have graduated university to be on an actuarial graduate scheme, placing the reader at age 21 at the youngest, I imagine this should be fine for the reader (and in true risk-averse actuarial nature, the section is clearly signposted with a hazard warning so can be skipped over if not to the reader’s taste).

To enjoy The Ultimate Actuarial Joke Book, all you need is decent understanding of actuarial principles and a healthy sense of humour. The author hypothesises that these two things are mutually exclusive. Laugh away at the jokes in this book and prove him wrong.