He spoke about his wife Jeannie’s surgery for a brain tumor in April, which received a sympathetic and encouraging applause. “I didn’t take it off,” he replied. “I was in the other room, getting dirty.” With that, he made it possible to laugh safely on the subject.

The tumor was the size of a pear, he explained, which led to several jokes about comparing the size of tumors to fruit. The brain surgeon who worked on his wife was one of the best brain surgeons in the world, he was told, which made him wonder how the surgeon got this designation. “Maybe there is a competition? America has tumors? “

Because Gaffigan traveled abroad on his Noble Ape tour, he spoke about the quirks of living in London, Finland, and Japan. He traveled with his five blond children to China, where people wanted to have their pictures taken with them and rub their heads. “They are my children, but they are also lucky items. After this happened several times, I was like, ‘Hey!’ He paused briefly, changing his tone from indignant father to silly. “We should charge, right?” “

A very brief foray into Donald Trump and politics (“As a straight white man, I feel like everything will be fine. My wife hates this joke.”) Led to some obscure jokes about giving up Prince Edward to the throne for marriage. There probably aren’t many comedians who joked about genetic testing for ancestry research (“Mine just said, ‘Dude, you’re white. Actually, you’re very white. I hope so. you feel guilty! ””), but many others have joked about preparing for a colonoscopy. Still, Gaffigan made the subject laugh: “When I woke up I was fine. I’m pregnant, but I’m fine.