🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Behind Shared Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal social sound," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to humour, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a complex series of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It means we are not just reacting to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a Christmas gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research search for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he adds.

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he states 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 jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

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