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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Of Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the brain when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

The research involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific project for the world's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he says.

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

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says the more effective.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the gathering and I believe it's lovely."