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

This joke is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

We're at a joke-testing meeting with a company that makes supplies for social events. Its catalogue includes Christmas crackers.

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

"The success is gauged by the gag by the volume of moans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder says.

The key to a good holiday cracker joke is not the same as a stand-up joke per se. It is all about the setting - in this instance, the shared amusement of the holiday dinner table with grandparents, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that brings the eight-year-old in harmony with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Gathering to enjoy communal laughter is not only nothing new, experts say, it is probably to be pre-human.

"So when you are laughing with others around the holiday dinner you are dropping into what's very likely a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," explains a professor.

Communal amusement, she explains, aids in make and maintain social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of these interactions can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"The people you talk to, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a particularly awful festive cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly vital task of making, maintaining the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Occurs Inside the Mind?

But what is actually happening within the mind when we hear a joke?

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

Using brain scanning technology, a type of neural imager which shows which areas of the brain are more active, researchers have been able to map the regions that receive more blood flow.

Testing entails imaging the brains of healthy subjects and then exposing them to a database of funny words, paired with either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we observed a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the parts of the mind in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also neural areas associated with both planning and initiating motion and those involved in vision and recall.

Put these elements as a whole, and people hearing a pun have a complex series of brain responses that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the mind than the identical word when followed by a neutral sound.

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

It means we are not just reacting to funny jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, says the professor, can be contagious.

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

"People laugh more when you are familiar with others," she notes, "and laughter increases further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the feel-good factor is more probable to be caused not by the gag 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 pretext to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the ultimate gag?

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

Years ago, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 gags submitted, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a better idea than most as to what works and what does not.

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

"They must also be bad gags, puns that make us moan," he continues.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

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

"What's interesting about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."