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"What was the price did Santa's sleigh cost? Zero, 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 founder grins, almost apologetically at the joke. But the joke has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of moans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good Christmas cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke in itself. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly friends.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammal social vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a lack of these interactions can seriously damage mental and physical health.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly vital task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is actually taking place inside the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to map the areas that get more blood.

The research entails scanning the minds of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions involved in both planning and starting movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Put all of this as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Power of Laughter

Scientists discovered that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in areas of the brain that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor explains.

It means people are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

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

"You laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the perfect gag?

Likely not, but that has not stopped experts from attempting to.

Years ago, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker pun must be brief, he says.

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

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

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

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

"It creates a common experience around the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."