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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

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

"You want the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social sound," says a professor.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of these interactions can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really interesting pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of neural responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented researchers from attempting to.

Years ago, a professor set up a scientific search for the planet's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."