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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Nothing, it was on the house."

This one-liner is met by groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Of Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are laughing with people at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian social sound," explains a professor.

Shared laughter, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Researchers have discovered that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded chuckles.

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

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Put these elements as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a complex set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny word is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your expression into a smile or a chuckle," she says.

It indicates we are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the positive effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the terrible holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist set up a research project for the world's funniest gag.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better understanding than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

The more "terrible" the joke, he says the more effective.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker puns is that not one person find them funny.

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