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

This one-liner is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

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

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

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

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a lack of these social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is truly taking place within the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It indicates we are not just responding to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard around a holiday gathering?

"You laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like 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 gag in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

Likely not, but that has not stopped researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"But they also need to be poor jokes, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us considers them funny.

"It creates a common experience around the table and I think it's lovely."