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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly 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 explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal social sound," says a professor.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the regions that get more blood.

The research involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and memory.

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

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

It means people are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be brief, he says.

"But they 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 no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I think it's lovely."