🔗 Share this article

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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place inside the mind when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very fascinating pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and understanding language, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

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

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

It indicates we are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard around a holiday table?

"People laugh more 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 puns, she explains, the positive factor is more likely to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what does not.

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

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

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a common experience around the table and I believe it's lovely."