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

This quip is greeted with moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner smiles, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to sight and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would employ to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the dreadful holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the world's most humorous gag.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

"It creates a common moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."