The Impact of Holiday Cracker Gags Affect The Brain?

"What was the price did Santa's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely 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 mammalian social sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

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

The research entails scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also brain areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a complex series of neural responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or love them."

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

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific project for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the joke, he says the better.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"It creates a shared moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."