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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing session with a company that makes products for social events. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that brings the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal play sound," explains a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

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

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the brain when we hear a joke?

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding language, but also neural regions involved in both planning and starting motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is combined with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found around a holiday table?

"People laugh more when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive 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 terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

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

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a common moment around the table and I think it's wonderful."