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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This quip is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

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

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

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to humour, it turns out.

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

Testing involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain regions involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

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

"This was in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just responding to humorous words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the response 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 Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

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