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"How much did Father Christmas's sleigh cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This one-liner is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"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 Laughter

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal social sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously damage both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

The research entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex series of brain reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It means people are not just responding to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific project for the world's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

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

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."