Comedian Jim Gaffigan revealed on The View on Monday that he revised his political jokes on the fly while at the annual Al Smith Dinner.
During his interview on The View, Gaffigan quipped about performing standup comedy for “politicians and billionaires” in October at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, an annual white-tie fundraising event for Catholic charities in New York City.
The event earlier this fall, which is known for its roasting of fellow high-profile attendees, included then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, while Vice President Kamala Harris opted to submit a video message to play at the dinner. Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also attended the dinner with his wife Cheryl Hines.
Gaffigan shared that despite his brutal roasting of both political sides, he did hold back some jokes.
“It’s such a weird room,” Gaffigan said of the dinner. “I knew it was a no-win situation. You’re going to anger people on the right and the people on the left. It was an interesting thing. Trump was there, and I had to adjust.”
“I had, like, an RFK Jr. joke, and I saw that, like, Cheryl Hines was there,” he said, explaining his standup methodology that night. “And I was, like, ‘I don’t want to do that joke.’ You know?”
During the weeks leading up to the dinner, the media had hyped allegations that a New York magazine writer, Olivia Nuzzi, had engaged in a “personal” texting relationship with Kennedy. However, an RFK Jr. spokesperson squashed any rumors of a relationship, saying that Kennedy had “only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested.” Gaffigan’s planned jokes were likely related to the rumors, and his sensitivity to Hines in the room probably made him change course.
Gaffigan added how he scrapped a Trump joke, “I was adjusting because there’s material you come up with that makes perfect sense, but in the setting, you’re, like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do an assassination joke.’ That might be a little — yeah. It’s like, his wife is sitting there. That might be a little strange.”
Fellow comedian Whoopi Goldberg nodded and responded, “Yeah, it’s called reading the room.”
On Sept. 15, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was accused of an assassination attempt on Trump at a golf course in Florida, but it was stopped by the Secret Service, making it the second assassination attempt on the former president in months.
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Gaffigan appeared on the ABC show on Monday to promote his latest Hulu comedy show, The Skinny. In 2025, he will team up with comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld for a 10-area tour across the U.S. and Canada.
During the election, Gaffigan played Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live, portraying the governor as an affable, awkward, and high-energy Midwesterner. The comedian said on The View that he appreciated the chance to perform on the show which he considers the Harvard of comedy.
