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"What was the price did Santa's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

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

"You want the gag to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammalian play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

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

Testing involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating activation pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and starting motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Put all of this together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex set of neural responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, according to the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard at a Christmas gathering?

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

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

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

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

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun needs to be short, he says.

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

The more "terrible" the gag, he states the better.

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

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

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