🔗 Share this article

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a holiday table?

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

"They must also need to be bad gags, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a shared experience at the gathering and I think it's wonderful."