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"What was the price did Santa's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex series of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific project for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke must be short, he explains.

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

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the more effective.

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

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a common experience around the table and I believe it's wonderful."