🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body'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 truly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed 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 people are not just reacting to humorous words, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the world's most humorous gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also need to be poor gags, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he states the better.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

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

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