🔗 Share this article

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

This quip is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," explains a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the dreadful holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"But they also be bad jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

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

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person considers them humorous.

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