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"How much did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

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

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor says.

It means people are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he explains.

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

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them funny.

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."