🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play sound," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

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

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

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which shows which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of brain responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the brain than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good factor is more likely to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific project for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

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

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us considers them funny.

"That's a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."