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"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. 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 at the table," she explains.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

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

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

The research involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

It indicates people are not just responding to humorous words, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a Christmas table?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research project for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be short, he says.

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

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"It creates a common moment around the gathering and I think it's lovely."