What Do Holiday Cracker Puns Affect Our Minds?

"How much did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The company's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good joke per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammal play sound," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very interesting pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

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

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

Probably not, but that has not prevented researchers from trying to.

Years ago, a professor set up a research search for the world's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he says.

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

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says 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 jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a shared experience at the table and I think it's lovely."