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

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

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

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with others at the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammal play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs In the Mind?

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

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which parts 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 volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a Christmas table?

"You laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, 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 gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the world's most humorous joke.

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

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"They must also need to be poor gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the better.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

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