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"How much did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The firm's owner grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

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

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

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

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

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

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.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that get more blood.

The research involves imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very fascinating pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

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

The Infectious Power of Laughter

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

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

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

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

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

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research search for the planet's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"They must also need to be poor jokes, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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

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

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person considers them funny.

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