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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that brings the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian play sound," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

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

Put these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a complex series of neural responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word 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 areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor says.

It means people are not just reacting to funny jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard around a Christmas table?

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

Probably not, but that has not prevented researchers from attempting to.

Years ago, a professor set up a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be short, he says.

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

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

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

"It creates a common moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."