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

This quip is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces products for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

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

"So when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the brain when we listen to a joke?

A tremendous amount happens in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor set up a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us considers them humorous.

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