🔗 Share this article

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

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

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

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

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

It indicates people are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

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

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a common experience around the table and I think it's wonderful."