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

This quip is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

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

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

Probably not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the world's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"They must also need to be bad jokes, puns that make us groan," he continues.

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

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

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

"It creates a shared experience at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."