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

This one-liner is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue features festive crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost apologetically at the gag. But the joke has made the cut and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the gag by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans at the table," she explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker joke is not the same as a good joke in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the gag to be something that unites the eight-year-old together with the grandparent," she states.

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"So when you are chuckling with people at the Christmas dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really ancient mammalian play sound," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal amusement, she explains, helps forge and strengthen social bonds between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these social exchanges can significantly harm both psychological and bodily well-being.

"Those you converse with, and laugh with, it results in enhanced levels of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

Endorphins are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just laughing at a foolish joke with a Christmas cracker," she states. "You are in fact performing a lot of the truly important task of making, maintaining the social bonds you have with the people you love."

What Occurs In the Brain?

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

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the brain are working harder, researchers have been able to map the regions that get more blood.

The research entails imaging the brains of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

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

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain regions associated with both planning and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a sophisticated series of neural responses that support the laughter we experience.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Researchers discovered that when a humorous word is paired with chuckles there is a greater reaction in the mind than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This was in parts of the mind that you would use to move your face into a smile or a laugh," the professor says.

It indicates people are not just responding to humorous words, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Amusement, according to the expert, can be infectious.

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

"People laugh harder when you know others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to festive cracker jokes, she says, the positive effect 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 terrible Christmas cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

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

In 2001, a professor set up a research project for the planet's most humorous joke.

Over tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores lodged by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer idea than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker joke needs to be brief, he explains.

"But they also be poor jokes, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

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

"This is because if nobody finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

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

"That's a common experience at the gathering and I think it's lovely."