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"What was the price did Santa's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear 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 says.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood.

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

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

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard at a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific project for the world's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be brief, he says.

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

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he states the more effective.

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"That's a common moment around the table and I believe it's lovely."