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

This quip is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of endorphin release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

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

The research entails scanning the brains of healthy participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a very interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural regions involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Put these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a holiday gathering?

"People 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 festive cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered 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 laugh together."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

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

The more "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a common moment around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."