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"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

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

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

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

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect 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 pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle together."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 people globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

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

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

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

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

"It creates a common moment around the table and I believe it's wonderful."