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

This one-liner is greeted with moans that resonate through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that produces products for social events. Its catalogue features Christmas crackers.

The firm's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

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

The secret to a good holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this case, the shared amusement of the Christmas dinner table with grandparents, children and possibly neighbours.

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

The Science Of Communal Laughter

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

"So when you are laughing with people around the holiday dinner you are engaging in what's almost certainly a truly ancient mammal social vocalisation," says a professor.

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

Scientists have found that a lack of such social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical well-being.

"Those you talk to, and laugh with, it leads to increased amounts of endorphin uptake," the professor continues.

Endorphins are the body's "happy chemicals" and are released both to alleviate tension and discomfort and in response to pleasurable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply laughing at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are in fact performing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with those you love."

Which Happens Inside the Brain?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we listen to a gag?

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

Employing brain scanning technology, a kind of brain scanner which indicates which areas of the brain are working harder, scientists have been able to map the areas that receive more blood.

Testing entails imaging the minds of volunteer subjects and then subjecting them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we observed a very fascinating activation pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain responsible for hearing and interpreting language, but also brain areas associated with both planning and initiating motion and those linked to vision and recall.

Combine these elements as a whole, and individuals listening to a pun have a sophisticated set of brain responses that support the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the brain than the identical phrase when followed by a non-emotional sound.

"This was in parts of the brain that you would use to move your expression into a smile or a chuckle," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the amusement that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the professor, can be infectious.

So what does this imply for the chuckles heard around a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she notes, "and you laugh more when you like them or care for them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the gag itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The joke is the dreadful holiday cracker joke, and it's just a reason to chuckle together."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Will we ever discover the perfect gag?

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

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the planet's most humorous gag.

More than tens of thousands of jokes later, with scores provided by 350,000 participants globally, he has a clearer idea than most as to what works and what fails.

The perfect Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also need to be poor gags, jokes that make us groan," he continues.

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

"The reason is that if nobody finds it funny – it's the joke's fault, not your own.

"The fascinating part about the holiday cracker jokes is that not one person find them humorous.

"It creates a common experience at the gathering and I believe it's wonderful."