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

This quip is greeted with groans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

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

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play sound," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the brain when we hear a gag?

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and understanding language, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex series of brain responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," she says.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

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

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that cause us to groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

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