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

This one-liner is met by groans that resonate through a warehouse in the capital.

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

The firm's owner smiles, nearly sheepishly at the joke. But the joke has made the cut and will appear in future 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 good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the Christmas meal with elders, children and possibly friends.

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

The Neuroscience Behind Shared Amusement

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, scientists argue, it is probably to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are chuckling with others at the Christmas table you are dropping into what's very likely a truly ancient mammalian play vocalisation," explains a neuroscience expert.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Scientists have found that a lack of such interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you talk to, and share laughter with, it results in increased amounts of 'happy chemical' release," she adds.

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

"You're not just laughing at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," she says. "You are actually doing a lot of the really important task of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you love."

Which Occurs Inside the Brain?

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

An awful lot happens in reaction to comedy, it turns out.

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

Testing involves scanning the brains of volunteer subjects and then exposing them to a collection of humorous phrases, paired with either a non-emotional sound, or pre-recorded chuckles.

"During the study we got a really fascinating activation pattern of activation," says the neuroscientist.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding language, but also neural areas involved in both preparation and initiating movement and those involved in sight and memory.

Combine all of this as a whole, and people hearing a joke have a sophisticated set of neural reactions that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Nature of Laughter

Researchers found that when a funny word is paired with chuckles there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same word when followed by a non-emotional sound.

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

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

Amusement, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

"You laugh harder when you are familiar with others," she says, "and laughter increases more when you like them or care for them."

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

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

The Search for the Perfect Cracker Joke

Will we ever discover the perfect joke?

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

In 2001, a professor established a scientific search for the planet's funniest joke.

More than tens of thousands of gags later, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of participants around the world, he has a better idea than many as to what works and what does not.

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

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

The more "terrible" the joke, he states the better.

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

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

"It creates a shared experience at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."