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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke 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 identical as a good gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

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

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine these elements together, and people hearing a joke have a complex set of neural responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

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

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific project for the planet's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also be poor gags, jokes that make us moan," he adds.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us find them funny.

"That's a shared moment at the table and I think it's lovely."