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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the gag to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal social sound," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Researchers have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin release," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

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

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that make us moan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the gag, he says the better.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."