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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

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

The company's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Scientists found that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found around a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research project for the world's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be short, he says.

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

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

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

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

"It creates a common experience around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."