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"How much did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This one-liner is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

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

The company's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

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

Researchers have found that a lack of such social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex set of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"They must also be poor gags, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."