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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 resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," explains a professor.

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

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these interactions can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

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

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

It means people are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard around a Christmas table?

"You laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be short, he says.

"They must also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

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