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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This quip is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the gag to be a thing that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

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

"So when you are chuckling with people at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammal play vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and starting movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of neural responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard around a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know others," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the world's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 gags later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he says.

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to 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 holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a common moment at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."