50. One to screw in the light bulb and the remaining 49 to guard him .
or
She ran away from the ball.
or
Someone stepped on its mouse.
or
One. He gives it to six Californians, thereby reducing the problem to an earlier joke...
In earlier work, Wiener [1] has shown that one mathematician can change a light bulb.
If k mathematicians can change a light bulb, and if one more simply watches them do it, then k+1 mathematicians will have changed the light bulb.
Therefore, by induction, for all n in the positive integers, n mathematicians can change a light bulb.
Bibliography:
[1] Wiener, Matthew P., <11485@ucbvax>, Re: YALBJ, 1986
or