What Do Holiday Cracker Jokes Do to Our Minds?

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

This one-liner is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a good joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with elders, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we hear a gag?

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

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

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases 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 itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

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

Over 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"They must also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

The more "awful" the joke, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

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