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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation session with a company that produces supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the shared laughter of the Christmas meal with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the gag to be a thing that unites the child in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have found that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

Which Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating motion and those linked to sight and recall.

Combine all of this together, and individuals listening to a joke have a complex set of neural responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It indicates people are not just reacting to humorous words, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles found around a holiday table?

"You laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor set up a scientific project for the planet's funniest gag.

Over 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what does not.

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

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

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"It creates a common experience around the table and I believe it's wonderful."