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

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

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

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

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

The key to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," she continues.

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

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

The research involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a complex set of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful Christmas 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 ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the planet's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

"That's a common moment at the gathering and I think it's lovely."