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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 echo through a warehouse in the capital.

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

The firm's owner grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot occurs in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a Christmas table?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research project for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also need to be bad gags, puns that cause us to moan," he continues.

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a shared experience at the table and I think it's wonderful."