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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is truly happening inside the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny word is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor says.

It means we are not just reacting to humorous words, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a holiday table?

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

Likely not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

Years ago, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a common experience at the table and I believe it's wonderful."