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

This joke is greeted with groans that echo through a storage facility in London.

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

The firm's owner smiles, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday meal with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal amusement is not only nothing new, scientists say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people around the Christmas table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal play sound," says a professor.

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

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin uptake," she continues.

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

"It's not simply chuckling at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing 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 truly happening within the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating movement and those linked to vision and recall.

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

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

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

"You laugh more 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 positive factor is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the terrible Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

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

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

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he says.

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

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

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."