The Impact of Christmas Cracker Puns Affect The Brain?

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

This quip is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, 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 really primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin release," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

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

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

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very interesting pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke must be short, he says.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the joke, he states the better.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

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