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

This joke is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly primordial mammal play sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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 receive more blood.

The research involves imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor says.

It means we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a holiday table?

"People laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

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

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific project for the planet's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 gags later, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he states the better.

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person find them funny.

"That's a shared moment around the table and I believe it's wonderful."