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

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

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

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

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

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

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

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

The research involves imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he continues.

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person find them humorous.

"That's a shared experience around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."