How Do Festive Cracker Puns Do to The Brain?

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

This joke is greeted with groans 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 festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Laughter

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

"So when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It indicates we are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

Probably not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

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

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"They must also be bad gags, puns that cause us to moan," he continues.

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

"It creates a shared experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."