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

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

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

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

Endorphins 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 awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which parts of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very interesting pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

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

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research search for the world's funniest joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke must be short, he says.

"They must also need to be bad gags, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

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

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

"That's a common moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."