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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

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

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

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

The research entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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 infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with scores provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he says.

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

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"It creates a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."