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

This quip is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play sound," says a professor.

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

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

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know others," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research project for the world's funniest gag.

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

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

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

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

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

"That's a common experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."