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

This quip is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these social exchanges can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

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

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and starting movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

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

The more "awful" the gag, he says the more effective.

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

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

"It creates a common experience around the gathering and I think it's lovely."