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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

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

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal play vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously damage mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural regions involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals listening to a pun have a complex set of neural responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

It means people are not just reacting to funny jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard around a Christmas table?

"You laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a research project for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

"But they also be bad jokes, puns that make us groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

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