VIDEO: Trump, Hillary try to deliver (not be) punchlines at Al Smith Dinner

I'm not the biggest fan of these events where politicians get up and try to be funny, while the formally clad political class mixes polite laughter with the real thing. I'd say the performances at last night's Al Smith Dinner did little to change my opinion about that, but I'll give you the chance to judge for yourself. These videos are not the full remarks, just the jokes. It's like skipping the commercials in a Seinfeld episode, except that the part you'd be left with would actually be funny. First Hillary, then Trump. By the way, before you play them, compare (in the still shots) the expressions of the two guys on either side while they're listening to Hillary, and while they're listening to Trump.

If we do get stuck with Hillary as president, I hope we don't have to get subjected to too much of her trying to do this. She's difficult enough to listen to when she's trying to be serious. I don't think she has a humorous bone in her body, and she's so unnatural that she actually managed to let slip that someone else wrote the jokes for her. I guess that's the least surprising thing that happened all night. As for Trump, for obvious reasons I quite enjoyed the Watergate reference, although I'm sure it's going to bring about a whole new round of dishonest "fact-checking" that claims my story was all wrong. It wasn't. Hillary really did write a dishonest memo to try to deny the president of the United States the right to legal counsel, however much the political class and their media bootlickers want to try to protect her from that reality today. Anyway, one thing I think you see here is how disingenuous much of the handwringing about Trump really is. One day these people are ready to slit their wrists because Trump is "refusing to accept the results of the election" and our democracy is imperiled. The next day they're whooping it up with him at this stupid event. Pretty much all of politics is performance art now, followed by endless prattling by the art critics who masquerade as political reporters. I guess that makes the election like the Oscars, where sometimes the most awful performances still inexplicably win.

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