🔗 Share this article

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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

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

"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 funny.

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