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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

"You laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

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