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

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

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

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

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

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

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

It means we are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a Christmas table?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 gags later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke must be short, he explains.

"They must also be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

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