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

This one-liner is met by groans that echo through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes supplies for gatherings. Its repertoire features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she says.

The key to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Shared Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the Christmas table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage both psychological and bodily well-being.

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

Endorphins are the brain'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 particularly awful Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening within the brain when we hear a joke?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

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

Testing entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"In the scanner we observed a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of hearing and understanding speech, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those linked to vision and memory.

Put all of this together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the laughter we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Researchers found that when a funny phrase is combined with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the identical word when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard around a holiday gathering?

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

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the dreadful Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, puns that cause us to moan," he adds.

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

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the joke's shortcoming, not yours.

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

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