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

This quip is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social vocalisation," explains a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific project for the planet's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"They must also need to be poor gags, puns that cause us to moan," he continues.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he states the better.

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

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