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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

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

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

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

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

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

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of brain responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It indicates we are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be short, he explains.

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

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"That's a common experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."