Robert Williams, professor of mathematics at Northwestern University, is reportedly considering a career as a stand-up comedian after hearing over half of his class exhale through their nostrils in response to a joke in his lecture.

“It was really a better reaction than I ever could have hoped for,” Williams said. “Hearing that collective, brief sound of half-hearted grunts made me stop and think, ‘maybe I should be doing comedy instead of teaching.’”

Williams tried some of his material on other classes. There were similar results. In fact, reports claim that some students even briefly looked up from their computers before returning to checking Facebook.

In response to critics saying Williams’ humor is “not funny” or that he should “just teach math,” he said, “Comedy is always pushing boundaries. Sometimes, people just aren’t ready for what I have to say. But as a comedian, my job is always to hold a mirror up to society by occasionally making an offhand comment in the middle of a two-hour math lecture, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Ultimately, Williams says he isn’t quite ready to make his comedy a full-time career. “I’m enjoying it right now as a big fish in a small pond,” he said. “And besides, I think I should focus on getting those CTECs up before I’m ready to hit the big time.”