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

This quip is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with grandparents, kids and potentially friends.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to experience shared amusement is not only nothing new, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a absence of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical well-being.

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

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are actually performing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Brain?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to humour, it transpires.

Using brain scanning technology, a type of brain scanner which shows which parts of the mind are working harder, scientists have been able to map the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves scanning the brains of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of humorous words, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a very fascinating pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the areas of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding language, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine all of this together, and individuals listening to a joke have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would employ to contort your face into a grin or a chuckle," she says.

It indicates we are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are responding to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be infectious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a holiday table?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good effect is more likely to be triggered not by the gag in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a pretext to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the perfect gag?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous gag.

Over tens of thousands of gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what succeeds and what does not.

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

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

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

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