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

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

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

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

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

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

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

Shared laughter, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

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

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing involves scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Put all of this together, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger response in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found at a Christmas gathering?

"You laugh more when you know others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be brief, he says.

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

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

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

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that not one person find them funny.

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