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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces supplies for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

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

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we hear a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions associated with both planning and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a pun have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag 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 experts from attempting to.

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

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"They must also be poor jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."