🔗 Share this article

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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

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

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play sound," explains a professor.

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

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

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

But what is actually happening inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

Testing involves scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

Probably not, but that has not stopped researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific project for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

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

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

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

"That's a common moment around the table and I think it's wonderful."