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

This joke is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be pre-human.

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

Shared amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly taking place within the mind when we hear a gag?

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research entails scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and you laugh further 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 caused not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

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

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"That's a shared experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."