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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 moans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with elders, kids and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Communal Amusement

Gathering to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian social sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

The research entails scanning the brains of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she explains.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard around a holiday table?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the world's funniest joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker joke must be brief, he says.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, puns that make us moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

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