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

This joke is met by groans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing session with a firm that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's founder smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the joke has been selected and will appear in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a good gag per se. It is all about the context - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday meal with elders, kids and possibly neighbours.

"The goal is for the joke to be a thing that unites the eight-year-old in harmony with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are chuckling with people at the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's very likely a really primordial mammalian social vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared amusement, she says, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Scientists have discovered that a absence of such social exchanges can seriously harm both psychological and bodily health.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable experiences, such as laughing with friends over a truly awful Christmas cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is truly taking place inside the mind when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which areas of the mind are more active, researchers have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood.

Testing involves imaging the minds of healthy participants and then subjecting them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

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

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and interpreting language, but also neural regions associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of neural responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Scientists found that when a humorous phrase is combined with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the same word when accompanied by a non-emotional 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 indicates we are not just responding to funny words, they are responding to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the chuckles heard at a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she says, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect is more likely to be caused not by the gag itself, but from the reaction to it.

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

The Quest for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever find the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with scores provided by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what fails.

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

"They must also be poor gags, puns that make us groan," he continues.

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's fault, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us considers them funny.

"It creates a shared moment around the table and I think it's wonderful."