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

This quip is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

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

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

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which areas of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know others," 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 effect is more probable to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be short, he says.

"They must also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he says the better.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

"That's a common moment at the table and I think it's wonderful."