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

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

This describes a joke-testing session with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to laugh together."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research search for the world's funniest joke.

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

The ideal festive cracker pun must be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad gags, puns that make us groan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"That's a shared experience around the table and I think it's wonderful."