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

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

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

The company's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can seriously damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday gathering?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas 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 Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"But they also be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The more "awful" the joke, he states the better.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a shared experience at the gathering and I think it's lovely."