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

This joke is greeted with groans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that produces supplies for social events. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The company's founder smiles, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

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

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared laughter of the holiday meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"You want the gag to be a thing that brings the child in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

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

"Therefore when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly primordial mammal play sound," explains a professor.

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

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the brain when we hear a joke?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood.

The research involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a very interesting activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A joke stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine all of this together, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

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

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It means people are not just reacting to humorous words, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the joke itself, but from the response to it.

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

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist established a research project for the world's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags submitted, with ratings provided by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be brief, he explains.

"But they also need to be poor gags, puns that make us moan," he continues.

The increasingly "awful" the joke, he says the more effective.

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"That's a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."