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"What was the price did Santa's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very interesting pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people hearing a joke have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

It means we are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific project for the world's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what fails.

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

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them humorous.

"That's a common moment at the gathering and I think it's wonderful."