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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

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

Shared amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in response to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research entails scanning the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of neural responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "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 gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad gags, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

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

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