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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

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

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

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a good gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

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

Communal amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of endorphin release," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to reduce stress and pain and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

A tremendous amount 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 brain are more active, researchers have been able to chart the areas that get more blood.

Testing involves imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and recall.

Put all of this as a whole, and people listening to a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

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

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard at a holiday gathering?

"People laugh more when you know people," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, 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 pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific project for the world's funniest gag.

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

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

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that make us moan," he continues.

The more "terrible" the gag, he says the better.

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

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

"It creates a common moment at the table and I think it's lovely."