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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

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

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of neural responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

It indicates we are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

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

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them funny.

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