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

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected 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 says.

The secret to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared laughter is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people around the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal social sound," explains a professor.

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

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the mind when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine all of this together, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the joke, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that none of us find them humorous.

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I think it's lovely."