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

This joke is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

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

The company's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear 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 secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating motion and those involved in vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a holiday table?

"You laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

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

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

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

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

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a common moment at the table and I think it's wonderful."