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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammal social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between people.

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

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

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

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of brain responses that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," she says.

It means people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

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

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

"That's a common experience at the gathering and I think it's wonderful."