🔗 Share this article

"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes products for social events. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which parts of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and starting movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It indicates we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be short, he says.

"But they also need to be bad gags, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

The more "terrible" the gag, he says the more effective.

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"That's a shared moment around the table and I think it's lovely."