🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we hear a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"They must also be bad jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he states the more effective.

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

"That's a shared moment around the table and I think it's wonderful."