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

This one-liner is greeted with groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

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

The firm's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

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

"So when you are laughing with others around the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

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

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she continues.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is actually taking place within the brain when we listen to a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which parts of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that get more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very interesting activation pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and starting movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine all of this as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," she explains.

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

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard at a Christmas gathering?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific project for the world's most humorous gag.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings lodged by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal festive cracker joke needs to be short, he explains.

"They must also be poor gags, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

The more "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"It creates a shared experience at the table and I think it's wonderful."