The Impact of Christmas Cracker Jokes Influence The Brain?

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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

Testing involves scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also brain regions involved in both planning and starting motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a joke have a complex set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a holiday table?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

Probably not, but that has not stopped researchers from attempting to.

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also be poor jokes, puns that cause us to moan," he continues.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he states the better.

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

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

"It creates a common moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."