The Impact of Festive Cracker Jokes Influence The Brain?

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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products 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 feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research involves imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny word 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 parts of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a grin or a chuckle," she says.

It means we are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research search for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be short, he says.

"They must also need to be poor gags, jokes that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person considers them funny.

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