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

This joke is greeted with moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes Christmas crackers.

The company's owner grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," she says.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the holiday dinner table with elders, children and potentially neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be something that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Science Behind Shared Laughter

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday table you are dropping into what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammalian play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

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

Researchers have discovered that a lack of such interactions can seriously harm mental and physical health.

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

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," the expert says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Happens Inside the Mind?

But what is truly happening within the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which shows which areas of the mind are working harder, researchers have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really interesting activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A joke activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and understanding speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and starting movement and those linked to sight and memory.

Combine these elements as a whole, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of brain responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a greater reaction in the brain than the identical phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your face into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It means people are not just responding to funny jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Amusement, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter found at a holiday gathering?

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

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"It's the laughter. The joke is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

Probably not, but that has not stopped researchers from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist established a scientific project for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better understanding than most as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker joke must be short, he says.

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

The more "awful" the joke, he states the more effective.

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

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person considers them humorous.

"That's a common moment at the gathering and I think it's wonderful."