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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more 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 triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"They must also need to be poor gags, puns that make us groan," he continues.

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he says the better.

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

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

"That's a common experience around the table and I think it's lovely."