Paco Erhard might one day have a son. Trouble is, he’s not yet totally prepared.

Though well travelled, he’s a raconteur more likely to regale you with tales of cheeky Moroccan hotel receptionists running imaginary prostitution rings than extol the virtues of the Saharan sublime. Though a bleeding-heart liberal to the core, he can’t bring himself to offer up the necessary B-Pay details to properly monetise his commitment to the cause.

Erhard’s inertia is, of course, a familiar one. Our inability to correlate personal action with global consequence is no laughing matter, and it is perhaps for this reason that the comedian draws as many rounds of applause as he does laughs. This is comedy with its finger on the pulse of the myriad contradictions which constitute the contemporary worldview. That it’s structured like an episode of How I Met Your Mother is pleasantly unnerving.

The big laughs of the night come when Erhard occupies his most familiar territory: Germany. Like any traveller who has ever returned home from a long stint overseas, he shares an ambivalent relationship with his country of origin. Erhard has a gift for exposing the contingency which lies at the centre of the familiar, and to make us laugh while doing so.

The set is not short of local flavour, and Erhard’s research into Australia must be commended. He does well to render faithfully the tautological nature of patriotism, an attitude which posits “being Australian” as the reason for being proud to be Australian. Again the audience laugh and applaud in equal measure, and there’s a sense that Erhard will be sending us home with more to think about than a few witty punchlines.

While the son to whom Paco addresses his concerns is still a figment of the man’s febrile imagination, we should be grateful. If it means that he must continue to transmit his bizarre posterity within the arena of stand-up comedy, then it’s best for all of us that his biological clock keeps on ticking. Ex-German is a show which skilfully houses serious questions within an unserious format, a Trojan horse designed to put paid to all scared cows.

Ex-German runs until February 12 and is part of Fringe World 2013. Tickets are available from fringeworld.com.au.