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

This quip is met by moans that resonate through a warehouse in London.

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

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

"The success is gauged by the joke by the volume of groans and the intensity of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great Christmas cracker joke is not the identical as a good joke in itself. It is entirely about the setting - in this case, the communal laughter of the Christmas meal with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the joke to be something that unites the child together with the 80-year-old," she states.

The Science Of Communal Amusement

Coming together to enjoy shared amusement is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the Christmas dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play sound," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she says, aids in make and maintain social connections between individuals.

Researchers have found that a absence of these interactions can seriously harm mental and physical health.

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

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with friends over a truly terrible Christmas cracker joke.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly joke with a Christmas cracker," the expert states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you care about."

What Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot occurs in response to comedy, it turns out.

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

The research entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a database of funny words, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we observed a really interesting pattern of activation," notes the neuroscientist.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the mind responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also neural regions involved in both preparation and starting motion and those involved in sight and memory.

Put all of this together, and individuals hearing a joke have a complex set of brain responses that underpin the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Power of Laughter

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

"This activation occurred in areas of the brain that you would use to contort your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor says.

It means people are not just reacting to funny words, they are responding to the amusement that follows them.

Laughter, according to the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles found at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and you laugh more when you like them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker jokes, she explains, the feel-good effect 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 joke, and it's just a pretext to laugh together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever find the ultimate joke?

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

Years ago, a psychologist established a research project for the planet's funniest gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 people around the world, he has a clearer idea than many as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke must be short, he explains.

"But they also be bad gags, jokes that cause us to moan," he continues.

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

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

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

"That's a shared experience at the table and I believe it's wonderful."