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

This joke is met by moans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation session with a company that makes products for social events. Its repertoire features festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," the founder explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammal play sound," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we listen to a joke?

An awful lot occurs in reaction to humour, it turns out.

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

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the areas of the mind responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," she explains.

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

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the dreadful Christmas cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle together."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a shared experience around the gathering and I think it's lovely."