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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 storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for social events. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut 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," she says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, experts say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

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

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and starting movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

It means people are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People 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 festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke must be short, he explains.

"But they also be bad gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he says the more effective.

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

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

"That's a common moment around the table and I believe it's lovely."