🔗 Share this article

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

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal social sound," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"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 in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas associated with both planning and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a complex set of neural responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you know others," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

Probably not, but that has not stopped experts from trying to.

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"But they also be poor gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody 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 funny.

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