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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Laughter

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

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we hear a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," she says.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

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

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

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

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

The more "awful" the joke, he states the more effective.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."