Accounting Humor - Oxymoron?

Accountants don't get credit for having much personality at all, let alone a sense of humor.  A quick google search of accounting humor will yield such gems as, "Have you heard the one about the interesting accountant? We haven't either." Having worked as an accountant for many years, I have met quite a few accountants, and I have to admit that as a group we do not stray far from the stereotype. But every so often I will run into a square peg, someone who just wandered into the field of accounting and never wandered out.  It is among this group that one is most likely to find the quirky eccentric who will send an e-mail out to the Director of Accounting in January announcing that he is unavailable for auditors until March 15. That sort of dry humor is what I would consider the best of "accountant humor."   Comedian Bob Newhart actually did time as an accountant briefly before ditching his job for the life of a standup comic.  Newhart's deadpan delivery was the epitome of accountant humor.  My father was an accountant, and he was a big fan of Newhart. He listened to The Button Down Mind Strikes Back over and over again.  In one of the monologues on this album, Newhart stated that the reason he was unsuccessful as an accountant was that he just couldn't get upset about small discrepancies.  As I remember it, he said that his accounts were more or less accurate, "give or take a thousand."  This joke never failed to crack Dad up.  

Beyond the deadpan sarcasm, some accountants share a type of geeky humor that can eke a laugh from even the dullest moments. Unfortunately, this brand of "humor" is an acquired taste that most folks never acquire.  Here's an example.  Back in the early 80's I used to work with an old accountant named Owen.  He was a quiet, bald little guy who sat in his office and spent hours recording and analyzing production costs with pencil, adding machine, and a pad of greenbar.  One day as I was walking past his office he called out to me eagerly, "Hey, come in here, I want to show you something."  He proceeded to show me how two different numbers from two different sources were coincidentally EXACTLY THE SAME.  After revealing the miracle, he looked at me expectantly for some sort of appreciative exclamation on my part ("WOW!!!"), after which he exploded into a fit of giggles.  "You don't see THAT very often," he declared gleefully.  Which brings to mind another quip about accountants.  How does an accountant liven up a party?  By leaving.