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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play sound," explains a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing involves imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good factor is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

"But they also be bad jokes, puns that make us groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says the more effective.

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."