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

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal social sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

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

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It means we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

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

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person find them humorous.

"That's a common moment at the table and I think it's wonderful."