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

This joke is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The company's owner grins, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

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

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the child together with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital work of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in response to comedy, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

Testing involves imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain reactions that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It means people are not just responding to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a Christmas gathering?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

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

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be short, he says.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a shared moment around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."