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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Zero, 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 firm that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

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

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these social exchanges can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of neural responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

It indicates people are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good 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 pun, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific project for the world's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"They must also be poor gags, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

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