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

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

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian play sound," explains a professor.

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

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing 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.

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

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

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

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

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a Christmas table?

"You laugh more when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday 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 gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

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

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a shared experience at the table and I think it's wonderful."