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

This one-liner is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of endorphin release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in response to comedy, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the areas that get more blood flow.

The research entails scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas associated with both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Put these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

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

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be short, he says.

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

The more "awful" the joke, he states 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 considers them funny.

"That's a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."