Comedian Jim Gaffigan walked the fine line between bawdy humor and outright insult when he delivered the punchline Thursday night at a political charity dinner with former President Donald Trump.
He couldn’t resist poking fun at the infamous “grab ’em by the p***y” controversy surrounding the 2016 election — despite standing before an audience of the nation’s top Catholic clergy at the Al Smith dinner New York and former first lady Melania Trump.
“You know, during the first and only debate, President Trump talked about immigrants taking cats and eating them,” Gaffigan said.
“You know, if you’re keeping an eye on it at home, this is the second time that getting a cat has been part of a campaign issue.”
Predictably, Melania’s eyes widened at the mention, a bit of boos rang through the hallway — and then a woman’s voice said, “We were talking about leaving that out.”
While some conservative websites tried to suggest it was an organizer expressing disgust, it was actually Gaffigan’s wife, Jeannie.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan hosted the annual Al Smith dinner, with his wife Jeannie to his right
She pursed her lips in an attempt not to laugh… but failed and smiled widely.
Gaffigan accepted the invitation to get a bigger response.
“I wanted to leave that out,” he said to loud laughter.
The black-tie dinner is an annual charity event in memory of New York’s first Catholic governor.
Celebrities in the crowd included Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, New York Mayor Eric Adams and Secretary of State Letitia James.
Vice President Kamala Harris skipped the event and sent a video skit in her place.
Trump attacked his election rival for not attending.
“My opponent feels like she doesn’t need to be here, which is disrespectful to the event and especially to our great Catholic community – very disrespectful,” Trump said.
“The last Democrat not to attend this event was Walter Mondale and he wasn’t doing so well.
First lady Melania Trump seemed clearly unimpressed by some of the jokes
Celebrities in the crowd included Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, New York Mayor Eric Adams and Secretary of State Letitia James.
Mondale suffered a blowout loss to Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Trump also went after Harris’ running mate Tim Walz: “This guy calls us weird.” But it is strange that the Democratic candidate is not with us tonight,” he said.
“If Dems really wanted someone not to be with us tonight, they would have just sent Joe Biden.”
Harris’ video featured actress Molly Shannonwho returned to her Saturday Night Live role as Mary Katherine Gallagher, an overprotective Catholic schoolgirl.
Harris made one joke at Trump’s expense after Shannon urged her not to say anything negative about Catholics.
Harris said she would never do something like that. “That would be like criticizing Detroit … in Detroit,” she said – recalling Trump’s recent criticism of the city at the Detroit Economic Club.