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

This joke is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

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

The company's owner grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian social sound," says a professor.

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

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount happens in response to humour, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a very interesting pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and starting motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would employ to contort your face into a smile or a laugh," she says.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," 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 positive effect 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 terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a research project for the world's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 gags later, with scores provided by 350,000 people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"But they also be bad gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

The more "terrible" the joke, 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 puns is that not one person find them humorous.

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