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

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

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

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

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

"You want the gag to be something that brings the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we hear a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of neural reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

Probably not, but that has not prevented researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the world's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 gags later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"They must also be bad gags, puns that make us groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the joke, he says the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

"It creates a shared moment around the gathering and I believe it's lovely."