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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This quip is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes products for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we hear a joke?

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a very interesting pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and understanding language, but also neural areas associated with both planning and starting movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to humorous words, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you like 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 response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"They must also need to be bad gags, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

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

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

"It creates a common moment at the gathering and I think it's wonderful."