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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that brings the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the brain when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

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

Testing involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and starting movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

"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 Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be brief, he says.

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

The more "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

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

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

"That's a shared moment around the gathering and I believe it's lovely."