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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to humour, it transpires.

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

The research entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put all of this together, and people hearing a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research search for the world's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also be poor gags, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a common experience at the table and I think it's wonderful."