What Do Festive Cracker Gags Influence The Brain?

"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This one-liner is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces products for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

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

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the mind when we hear a gag?

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

Using 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.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing 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 listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of neural responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates we are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a Christmas 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 Christmas cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more probable 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 pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's funniest gag.

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

The ideal festive cracker pun must be brief, he says.

"They must also be bad gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

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

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

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