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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

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

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

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

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

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

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

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard around a holiday table?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke 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 pretext to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"They must also be bad jokes, puns that make us groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the joke, he states the more effective.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a common moment at the table and I think it's wonderful."