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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

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

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails imaging the brains of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It indicates we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a Christmas table?

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

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

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also need to be bad gags, puns that make us groan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the gag, he states the better.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a common experience at the table and I believe it's wonderful."