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

This one-liner is met by groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," she says.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and potentially friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood.

Testing involves imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

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

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

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research search for the planet's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"But they also be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he continues.

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

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

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

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