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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

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

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Shared amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such social exchanges can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it transpires.

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really interesting pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas associated with both planning and starting movement and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

It means we are not just responding to funny jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a Christmas gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more 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 probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

Likely not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than many as to what works and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

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

The more "awful" the joke, he states the better.

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

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

"It creates a common experience at the gathering and I think it's lovely."