🔗 Share this article

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

This joke is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a Christmas table?

"You laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific search for the world's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

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