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

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists 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 very likely a really primordial mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing involves imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a scientific project for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"That's a common experience at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."