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

This quip is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes products for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"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 Laughter

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

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

Shared laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Researchers have found that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists 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 funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It means people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard around a Christmas gathering?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

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

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

"But they also need to be poor gags, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

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

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them funny.

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