At the Al Smith charity dinner — Trumpov was there, and Kamala Harris was not.

There were far more Democrats than Trumpov fans there, but Harris stayed away, though they let her appear as a pre-recorded video (in which she off-loaded the comedy to Molly Shannon, who deployed her old SNL Catholic schoolgirl character, and I couldn't hear any laughter in the room). 

Trumpov sat there — between Melania and the Cardinal — and laughed at gibes from Jim Gaffigan, who plays Tim Walz on SNL. Gaffigan is funny — and Catholic — and he handled his task well. Scroll to 2:25 to see him step up to speak as the camera pans to Donald Trumpov, who knows he's going to get kicked around and is sitting facing the audience, with only the Cardinal and Chuck Schumer between him and Gaffigan. But he knows he's not the one who chickened out and he knows he's going to get the last word.

Here is my selection and ranking of Jim Gaffigan's Top 7 jokes:

7.  "This room is is undeniably impressive... the prestige, the wealth, the allegations. I mean, wow, and don't feel bad if you don't have any allegations yet, okay, which reminds me Letitia James is here. She had a great year. She's just back there watching all of you. She's watching."

6. "This event has been referred to as the Catholic Met Gala. 22% of Americans identify as Catholic. Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state. I'm sorry: Why is Vice President Harris not here?... This is a layup for the Democratic nominee. I mean, in her defense I mean she did find time to appear on 'The View,' Howard Stern, and the long-time staple of campaigning the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast."

5. "You have to admit the Democrats have done an amazing job rebranding Vice President Harris.... The term 'Joyful Warrior' was used so many times at the Democratic Convention. I felt like I was at a yoga retreat. Let's start off in a Joyful Warrior pose and then go straight into Downward-Facing Doug."

4. "I watch that [video appearance of Kamala Harris]... I couldn't help but think of: Now I know how my kids felt when... I FaceTimed into a piano recital."

3. "I don't know if you've heard about these people who publicly say they would never vote for Trumpov, but then when they go in the voting booth, they do. It's a small group. They're called the Biden family."

2. "Joe Biden was our second Catholic President, right after JFK. President Biden couldn't be here tonight. The DNC made sure of that."

1. "The Democrats have been telling us Trumpov's reelection is a threat to democracy. In fact, they were so concerned of this threat, they staged a coup, outed their democratically elected incumbent and installed Kamala Harris."

AND NOW: Here is my selection and ranking of Donald Trumpov's Top 7 jokes comedic riffs:

7. "A major issue in this race is child care, and Kamala has put forward a concept of a plan.... The only piece of advice I would have for her in the event that she wins would be not to let her husband Doug anywhere near the nannies. Just keep them away. That's a nasty one. That's nasty. I told these idiots that gave me this stuff, that's too tough."

6. "When I heard that Kamala was skipping the Al Smith Dinner, I'd really hoped that she would come because we can't get enough of hearing her beautiful laugh. She laughs like crazy. We would recognize it anyplace — in this room."

5. "You can't do what I just saw on that screen, but my opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic Community.... The last Democrat not to attend this important event was Walter Mondale, and it did not go very well for him.... Shows you there is a God.... I understand the real reason that she's not here is she's hunting with her running mate — spending a lot of time hunting...."

4. "It's a true pleasure to be with you this evening — amazing pleasure... really a pleasure to be anywhere in New York without a subpoena.... Anytime I don't get a subpoena, I'm very happy. They've gone after me. Mr. Mayor, you're peanuts compared to what they've done to me. And you're going to be okay."

3. "All polls are indicating I'm leading big with a Catholic vote. As I should be. But I don't think Kamala has given up yet.... Instead of attending tonight she's in Michigan receiving communion from Gretchen Whitmer."

2. "If Democrats really wanted to have someone not be with us this evening they would have just sent Joe Biden."

1. "A good job tradition holds that I'm supposed to tell a few self-deprecating jokes this evening, so here it goes. Nope, I've got nothing I've got nothing. There's nothing to say. I guess I just don't see the point of taking shots at myself when other people have been shooting at me for a hell of a long time. They shoot, right? You know, they say about presidents, they say that Andrew Jackson was the President that was the most meanly treated. His wife died, she died of heartache. She was heartbroken at the way they treated him. And they say that second was Abraham Lincoln, but he was in charge of the Civil War, you know, so but those were the two... up until me. Now, they say it's not even close. There's never been a president that's been treated so badly as me. And now, people aren't happy about it, but I was treated a little bit rough, but I don't mind it somehow, and I think it's just part of the game."

SNL takes on the VP debate... and, yes, we get to see Dana Carvey as Joe Biden again.

And I love Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz...

"Saturday Night Live" cold opens with lots of political impersonations — including Dana Carvey as Joe Biden.

Scroll ahead if you must — to 10:23 — but don't miss Dana Carvey:

 Also — beginning at 2:22 — Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz.

Maya Rudolph does Kamala Harris well, but the show's urgent need for us to love Kamala makes it too hard to like what Rudolph is able to do. The show presumes we agree politically and will simple-mindedly experience fun as "Kamala" has "fun" (and that's how Harris's campaign feels to me). I resist feeling the candidate's emotions as enacted on the political stage. And, for political satire, I want to laugh at her. Speak to me as someone on the outside. Don't treat me like a willing guest at her party. 

Sample line, spoken by the Trumpov impersonator: "We had this in the bag, but then they did a switcheroo and they swapped out Biden with Kamala. And now everything is chaos. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking your pets, and they're doing freak offs. They're doing freak offs with the dogs, and they're making the geese watch. It's very sad. It's very sad. They're doing a Diddy."

ADDED: Mixing the P. Diddy story with the Haitians-in-Ohio story: Is that racist? It would be considered racist if Trumpov did it. It's in the black-people-remind-me-of-black-people mode. But in the sketch they have the Trumpov character combining the 2 topics, so if it's racist, it looks as though the racist is Trumpov. Clever? That's how you (try to) get away with it.

ALSO: For clarification, I substantially rewrote first 2 sentences of the paragraph that begins "Maya Rudolph does Kamala Harris well...."

Grok tries to help me analyze the "ethicality" of attaching a camera to your baby's head and deviously distracts me with the question of gluing hair onto the head of one's 3-year-old.

Here's my screen shot (and I'll tell you in a minute why I was asking this question):

 

I don't know why Jim Gaffigan had his question, but I had my question because I was reading the NYT article "From Baby Talk to Baby A.I./Could a better understanding of how infants acquire language help us build smarter A.I. models?" 

We read about a 20-month-old girl who wears "a soft pink hat" with a "lightweight GoPro-type camera... attached to the front." This particular child is only wearing the camera once a week for one month, but scientists are asking...