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

This quip is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with others around the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of endorphin uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

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

An awful lot occurs in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood.

The research entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

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

"This was in areas of the mind that you would use to contort your expression 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, says the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the planet's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

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

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

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

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

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