liven up their office party

[güey]

Hello there,

Would you tell me please what the point of this joke is? Is it a pun on meanings of "liven up" that I am not aware of?
Q: What do actuaries do to liven up their office party?
A: Invite an accountant.

 

[emsr2d2]

You're not misunderstanding "liven up". The joke (such as it is) is based on knowing that people think actuaries and accountants are really boring people. The joke suggests that even inviting an accountant (boring) would liven up a party full of actuaries.
It's not very funny!

 

[güey]

It's not very funny!

Agreed. Not funny to me either.

 

[Tarheel]

At least one person thinks it's funny. (Me.)

 

[Barque]

It made me smile too.

I've heard a similar one. What do you do when you fail the personality test for accountants? You become an actuary.

 

[güey]

Perhaps the point of Barque's and my examples are that accountants for some reason are still more exciting and interesting than actuaries?

 

[Barque]

Sort of, yes, but actually it's the other way round. Those jokes mean actuaries are even more boring than accountants.

Stereotypically, accountants are considered very boring. It's a widely held notion that accountants are dull and uninteresting.

Someone wanted to make a joke about actuaries.

So they made up jokes that suggest that actuaries are more boring than even accountants.