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"How much did Santa'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 humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

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

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to humour, it transpires.

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

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a complex set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"That's a shared moment around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."