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

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

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

The company's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be something that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

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

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

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is truly happening within the brain when we listen to a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that get more blood.

The research involves imaging the brains of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

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

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

It means people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, 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 holiday gathering?

"You laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 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 succeeds and what fails.

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

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

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

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