🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

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

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we hear a gag?

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

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

Testing involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put all of this together, and people hearing a pun have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

It means we are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

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

"They must also need to be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a shared moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."