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

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

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

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

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh more when you know people," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a shared experience at the table and I believe it's wonderful."