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

This one-liner is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of brain responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the identical word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"They must also need to be bad gags, 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 gag's fault, not your own.

"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 believe it's lovely."