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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

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

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammalian social vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

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

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a complex set of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," she says.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

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

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

The perfect Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."