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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

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

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a very interesting pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun must be short, he says.

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

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them funny.

"It creates a common moment at the table and I believe it's lovely."