The Impact of Festive Cracker Gags Affect Our Minds?

"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This one-liner is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the brain when we hear a gag?

An awful lot happens in response to comedy, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the same phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific project for the planet's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

The more "terrible" the gag, he states the more effective.

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

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a common experience at the gathering and I think it's lovely."