🔗 Share this article

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This quip is greeted with moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a Christmas table?

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

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

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

Likely not, but that has not stopped experts from trying to.

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us find them funny.

"That's a common experience at the table and I think it's lovely."