Best, Worst and Most Awkward Lines at the Al Smith Dinner

The two people running for president in one of the most pivotal and divisive elections in American history both tried to be funny at a Catholic charity event on Thursday night.

Results were mixed at best, uncomfortable at worst. Maybe it didn’t cost them any votes. Certainly, it cost them some laughs.

Former President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered remarks to the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Ms. Harris in a recorded video and Mr. Trump in person in a ballroom in Manhattan packed with New York’s political elite, business leaders and religious luminaries.

Mr. Trump rushed through prepared remarks, stumbling at times as he read through pointed political jokes, bitter grievances and crude and at times profane personal attacks. He seemed most energized when he ditched his script, caught between being an insult comic or just being insulting.

Ms. Harris was campaigning in Wisconsin, a critical battleground. She sent a recorded video in her place, appearing with the actress Molly Shannon as her Catholic schoolgirl character Mary Katherine Gallagher.

The vice president’s absence robbed the event of some of its electricity, and both Mr. Trump and the event’s master of ceremonies, the comedian Jim Gaffigan, mocked her for not attending. Ms. Harris is not the first candidate to miss the event. Walter F. Mondale, the Democratic nominee, skipped the dinner in 1984. Presidential candidates did not attend the dinner in 1992, 1996 or 2004.