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

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

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

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is actually happening within the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that get more blood.

The research involves imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research project for the world's funniest joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

"It creates a common experience around the gathering and I believe it's lovely."