Stephen Colbert presumably has a long list of People He Really Shouldn’t Insult on National Television (Oprah, Jesus, RuPaul). Add to that list N. Gregory Mankiw, the Harvard economics professor and mega-expensive textbook writer who used to work for the Bush administration. Attack Mankiw in public, and he’ll retaliate with the most terrifying weapon currently known to man: sober Ivy League improv.

A group of students from the Harvard sketch comedy group Respectably French recently took aim at Colbert, after the TV host slammed an op-ed that Mankiw had written in the New York Times about tax cuts. The group filmed a video response to Colbert’s attack and posted it to YouTube, where it’s now been viewed by the members of Respectably French and their mothers about 500 times apiece.

If you’ve taken Introductory Microeconomics (and are able to stay awake through YouTube clips longer than twelve seconds), you might actually find their video pretty funny. Everyone else, good luck:

Colbert, at least, thought it was funny enough to send a reply to Mankiw and his squadron of student defenders a few days later. His reply:

[CENSORED BY RESPECTABLY FRENCH, WHO THINK THEY SHOULD RESPECT COLBERT'S PRIVACY. IVYGATE RESPECTS NO ONE'S PRIVACY, BUT WE DON'T LIKE LAWSUITS.]

One has to wonder how Respectably French was coerced by wiretapping CIA operatives into filming was able to film Mankiw’s response in person. IvyGate tracked down Eric Brewster—the bro in the middle—to ask him how it went down. Said Brewster:

I pitched him the idea after class and he said he’d be willing to give the script a read…Prof. Mankiw approved the script over the weekend without demanding any changes and offered up an hour of his time for filming that Monday. He has a great sense of humor—especially for a dismal scientist—and took the self-deprecating jokes in stride. I’m sorry to inform you that he couldn’t have been less of a diva—he was extremely patient and jovial.

Maybe not a diva, but definitely a man with rich-guy leisure time. Colbert took him to task on TV for whining that higher taxes would “make him work less,” to quote the title of his article. If that’s the case, filming YouTube videos on work days could only be the beginning of his new high-tax lifestyle, which no doubt will include travails like getting his cuticles trimmed and advocating the legalization of crack rocks like some of his colleagues. We await his guest spotlight on South Park.