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

This quip is met by moans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the pun has been selected and will appear in upcoming 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 Christmas cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others at the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social sound," says a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have found that a absence of these social exchanges can seriously damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin release," she continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you love."

What Occurs Inside the Mind?

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

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research entails scanning the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"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 brain responsible for auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating motion 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 underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Power of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to contort your expression into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It indicates people are not just responding to humorous words, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a holiday table?

"You laugh more when you know others," she says, "and you laugh further when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the ultimate gag?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a scientific search for the world's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of gags later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

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

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

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

"It creates a common moment around the table and I believe it's wonderful."