🔗 Share this article

"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This quip is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

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

The firm's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we hear a joke?

A tremendous amount happens in response to comedy, it transpires.

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

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a Christmas table?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive 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 Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific project for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

"That's a common experience around the table and I think it's lovely."