Comedian Jim Gaffigan straddled a fine line between bawdy humor and outright offense when he supplied the punchlines at a charity political dinner featuring former President Donald Trump on Thursday evening.
He could not resist joking about the infamous ‘grab them by the p***y’ controversy of the 2016 election – despite being in front of an audience of New York’s top Catholic clergy and former first lady Melania Trump at the Al Smith Dinner.
‘You know, during the first and only debate, President Trump talked about migrants taking cats and eating them,’ said Gaffigan.
‘You know, if you’re keeping track at home, this is the second time grabbing a kitty has been part of a campaign issue.’
As might have been expected, Melania’s eyes widened at the mention, a smattering of boos rang around the hall – and then a female voice could be heard saying: ‘We talked about leaving that out.’
Another shot revealed the owner of the voice to be Mary Callahan Erdoes, vice chairperson of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation
She pursed her lips in an effort not to laugh … before failing and smiling broadly.
Gaffigan took the invitation to get a bigger response.
‘I was gonna leave that out,’ he said, to peals of laughter.
The white-tie dinner is an annual charity event in memory of New York’s first Catholic governor.
Notables in the crowd included Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, New York Mayor Eric Adams, and state AG Letitia James.
Vice President Kamala Harris skipped the event, sending a video skit in her stead.
Trump tore into his election rival for not being present.
‘My opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic community – very disrespectful,’ Trump said.
‘The last Democrat not to attend this event was Walter Mondale and it did not go very well for him.
Mondale suffered a blowout loss to Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Trump also went after Harris’ running mate Tim Walz: ‘This guy is calling us weird. But this is weird that the Democrat candidate is not with us tonight,’ he said.
‘If Dems really wanted to have someone not be with us this evening they would have just sent Joe Biden.’
Harris’ video featured actress Molly Shannon, who brought back her Saturday Night Live role as Mary Katherine Gallagher, an over-anxious Catholic school girl.
Harris got off one joke at Trump’s expense after Shannon urged urged her not to say anything negative about Catholics.
Harris said she would never do such a thing. ‘That would be like criticizing Detroit … in Detroit,’ she said – recalling Trump’s recent slam on the city at the Detroit Economic Club.