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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we listen to a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be short, he says.

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

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