🔗 Share this article

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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

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

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others at the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammal play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature 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 parts of the brain that you would use to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

Probably not, but that has not prevented researchers from trying to.

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

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

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

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

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

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