🔗 Share this article

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh 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 firm that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the brain when we listen to a joke?

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

It indicates we are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a holiday table?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

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

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

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them funny.

"It creates a common moment around the gathering and I think it's lovely."