The Impact of Holiday Cracker Gags Affect The Brain?

"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Zero, 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 session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, almost sheepishly 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 groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the mind when we listen to a joke?

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood.

The research involves imaging the brains of volunteer 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 observed a very interesting pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of brain responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

It indicates we are not just responding to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, puns that make us moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

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