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

This quip is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

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

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which shows which areas of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

The research involves scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a humorous phrase is combined with chuckles there is a greater response in the brain than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

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

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he explains.

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

The more "awful" the joke, he states the better.

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them funny.

"That's a shared moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."