🔗 Share this article

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

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

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

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

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

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

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is actually happening inside the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing involves imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also be bad jokes, puns that make us moan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"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 lovely."