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

This joke is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

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

"So when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

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

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

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

Testing involves scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It means we are not just reacting to humorous words, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from trying to.

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"But they also be bad gags, puns that make us groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's wonderful."