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

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be something that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of these social exchanges can significantly damage mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

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

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

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also neural regions associated with both preparation and starting motion and those involved in vision and memory.

Combine these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she explains.

It means we are not just responding to humorous words, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the world's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad gags, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a common moment at the table and I believe it's wonderful."