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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, 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 meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for hearing and understanding language, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It indicates we are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

"That's a shared experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."