The Impact of Festive Cracker Jokes Affect The Brain?

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

This one-liner is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with people at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social sound," says a professor.

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

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

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the regions that get more blood.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research search for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"But they also be bad gags, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the joke, he states the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

"That's a common moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."