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

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

This describes a joke-testing session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, scientists say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin release," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

Testing involves imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very interesting pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex series of brain reactions that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard at a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research search for the world's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

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

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a common moment around the table and I think it's wonderful."