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

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

We're at a joke-testing session with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's founder smiles, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

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

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

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

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammal play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it leads to enhanced amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

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 particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood.

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting activation pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the areas of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions involved in both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of neural responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

It means people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh more when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more probable to be caused not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research project for the world's funniest joke.

Over 40,000 gags later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people globally, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

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

"They must also need to be bad jokes, jokes that cause us to groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the better.

"The reason is that if nobody laughs – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us find them funny.

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