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

This quip is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"You want the gag to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammal social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside 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 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

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

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the better.

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

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

"It creates a common experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."