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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount happens in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine all of this together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

"You laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh together."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

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

"They must also be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

"It creates a common moment at the table and I believe it's lovely."