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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday gathering?

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag 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 together."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he states the better.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them funny.

"It creates a shared experience around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."