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

This one-liner is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

This describes a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for gatherings. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she explains.

The secret to a good Christmas cracker pun is not the same as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Science Behind Shared Laughter

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only nothing new, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with people at the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really ancient mammal social sound," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she says, helps make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

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

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable experiences, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible Christmas cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a foolish pun with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really important work of building, preserving the connections you have with those you love."

Which Happens In the Mind?

But what is truly taking place within the mind when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of brain scanner which shows which areas of the brain are more active, scientists have been able to map the regions that get more blood flow.

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

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and interpreting speech, but also brain regions involved in both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

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

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

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

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to contort your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to funny words, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

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

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a research search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged 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 joke needs to be brief, he explains.

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

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

"This is because if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that not one person find them funny.

"It creates a shared experience around the table and I believe it's lovely."