Have the entire audience been fed pot brownies? Why are they laughing so much? I know they're german, but jeez "begging the question" gets a laugh?

I don't think your hypothesis that Germany managed to conquer the eastern U.S. holds up.

Nerd humor, done just so, is hilarious... among nerds.

Yeah, he was totally begging for that laugh. Of course, it's a fallacy of composition to simply assume that everyone the sift actually understands nerd humor.

I'm sorry, but his entire presentation was absolutely hysterical. I suppose it just takes a good geek to understand the humor. Humor no pot head could comprehend.

UH, no... There must be some context here that's not explained during the video, because, unless they dubbed in canned laughter to make the talk sound more exciting, the entire audience was laughing at entirely normal comments and statements the guy made. That only happens if there's some pretext they were all aware of, that viewers of the recording missed out on.
This was not as funny as the audio track made it sound. I get humor. This was something else.

Bad ad hoc hypothese: he was imitating or lampooning a MIT professor everyone in the audience knows of.

I think the context is just a series of funny talks. You'll laugh at a comedian doing normal things (pauses, exaggerated expressions) just because you're ready for them to make you laugh. Warm-up acts - or in this case other talks - help get you in the mood.

Having said that, I laughed through it myself. His timing of the first line was spot on.

Maybe they're seeing something not shown on the video.

What are you all talking about? This whole presentation is parody. If you have ever watched someone present their paper and claim it is the greatest thing ever and that all of their hypotheses are clearly correct as shown in the data, then you will understand this. It is a perfect satire on PhD and Masters Thesis defenses as well.

This is one of an entire evening of similar presentations. The audience had been significantly warmed up by this point.

It's targeted at the narrow audience of those who are politically motivated to strawman & deny evolutionary psychology but scientifically literate enough to get the jokes. It's a bit sophomoric.