The Impact of Christmas Cracker Gags Do to The Brain?

"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret 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 shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammal social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

The research entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

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

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what does not.

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

"They must also need to be poor gags, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

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