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

This quip is greeted with moans that echo through a warehouse in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a company that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The firm's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the gag. But the pun has made the cut and will feature in future crackers.

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

The secret to a great holiday cracker pun is not the same as a good gag per se. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

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

The Neuroscience Of Communal Amusement

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others at the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a truly primordial mammalian play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared amusement, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly damage mental and physical well-being.

"The people you converse with, and share laughter with, it results in enhanced amounts of endorphin uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "feel-good compounds" and are produced both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a particularly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the truly important work of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Happens In the Mind?

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

A tremendous amount occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then exposing them to a collection of funny phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a very fascinating pattern of neural activity," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both planning and starting motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Combine all of this together, and people hearing a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that underpin the laughter we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a funny phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same word when followed by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in areas of the mind that you would employ to move your face into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

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

Laughter, says 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 more when you are fond of them or care for them."

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

"It's the laughter. The gag is the terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to laugh as a group."

The Search for the Perfect Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

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

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

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

The increasingly "terrible" the joke, he says the better.

"This is because if no-one laughs – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

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

"That's a common moment around the gathering and I think it's lovely."