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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

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

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we listen to a joke?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Put these elements together, and people hearing a pun have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor jokes, jokes that make us moan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the gag'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 moment around the table and I think it's lovely."