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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical health.

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex set of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh more when you know people," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of 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 itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

Probably not, but that has not prevented researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor established a research project for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

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

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he states the better.

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

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a shared moment around the table and I believe it's lovely."