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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people at the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play sound," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

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

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you know others," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be short, he says.

"They must also be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us considers them funny.

"That's a shared moment at the gathering and I think it's lovely."