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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

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

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the gag to be something that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect 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 dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

"They must also be poor jokes, puns that make us moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

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