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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This one-liner is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that get more blood.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very interesting pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger response in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she says.

It means we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

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

The more "terrible" the gag, he says the better.

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

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

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I believe it's lovely."