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

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

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, nearly apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of moans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she says.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this case, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy shared laughter is not only nothing new, experts argue, it is likely to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a truly ancient mammal social sound," says a professor.

Communal laughter, she says, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just chuckling at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly happening inside the mind when we listen to a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing entails scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

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

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those linked to vision and memory.

Combine all of this together, and individuals hearing a pun have a sophisticated series of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain 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 funny jokes, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Amusement, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard around a Christmas table?

"People laugh more when you know others," she notes, "and you laugh more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific project for the world's most humorous gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants globally, he has a clearer understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun must be short, he explains.

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

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

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

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

"That's a shared moment around the gathering and I think it's wonderful."