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

This joke is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

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

The firm's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian play sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening inside the mind when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

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

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

It indicates we are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the amusement that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a holiday gathering?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive 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 Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

Likely not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what does not.

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

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

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

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

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

"That's a common experience around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."