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

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

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag 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 stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Of Shared Amusement

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

"So when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

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

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

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

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

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It indicates people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh 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 reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented researchers from trying to.

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he continues.

The more "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"That's a common moment around the table and I believe it's lovely."