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

This quip is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

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

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she 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."

What Occurs In the Brain?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in response to humour, it turns out.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas associated with both planning and starting motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It means people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you like them or love them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research project for the world's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

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

"But they also be poor gags, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a common experience at the gathering and I think it's lovely."