The Impact of Christmas Cracker Gags Influence Our Brains?

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

This one-liner is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. 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 around the table," the founder says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Researchers have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

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 particularly terrible festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot happens in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex series of brain responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know people," 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 effect is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the world's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun needs to be short, he says.

"But they also be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."