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"What was the price did Santa's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is met by groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces products for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Scientists have discovered that a absence of these social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

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

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

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also brain regions associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex set of brain responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a holiday table?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from attempting to.

Years ago, a psychologist established a research project for the world's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"They must also be bad jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

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