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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

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

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

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