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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin uptake," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the mind when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to humour, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

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

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex series of brain responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the world's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

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

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

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he states the more effective.

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

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

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