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

This joke is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in London.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Of Shared Laughter

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

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

Shared amusement, she explains, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

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

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs In the Mind?

But what is truly happening within the brain when we listen to a gag?

An awful lot happens in response to humour, it turns out.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a database of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag activates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in vision and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex series of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with chuckles there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the mind that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the ultimate joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from trying to.

In 2001, a professor established a research search for the world's funniest gag.

Over tens of thousands of jokes submitted, with scores lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"They must also be bad gags, puns that cause us to groan," he continues.

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 your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that none of us find them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."