The Impact of Holiday Cracker Gags Affect Our Brains?

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

This joke is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts 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 mammalian play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

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

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a complex series of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you know people," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research project for the world's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also need to be bad gags, jokes that make us moan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us considers them funny.

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