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"How much did Santa's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

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

Testing entails scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a laugh," she says.

It means people are not just responding to humorous words, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific search for the world's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a common experience at the table and I think it's lovely."