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

This joke 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 gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, scientists say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammalian social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

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

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

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a complex series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

It indicates people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a holiday table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people globally, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be short, he says.

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

The more "terrible" the joke, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

"That's a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."