Just got back from my current events class where, after discussing the usual back and forths and frustrations of the political campaign for the first hour (read that “same old, same old”), the prof thought it would be good to have a long break for a much needed laugh or two, so he showed us a video that I enjoyed so much I decided to post and share it with My Wintersong readers here.

Over the past 63 years this annual black-tie dinner has served to pay tribute to the four-term New York governor and first Roman Catholic presidential candidate, Alfred E. Smith, as well as raise money for health care and other charitable causes. Last Thursday’s event, and the subject of these videos, featured surprising keynote  speakers (to me anyway), John McCain and Barack Obama.

Through quips and slightly irreverent humor, each showed their comedic side and poked fun at themselves and each other. MSNBC broadcast the dinner in full in its weekend programming, but if you missed it there and could use a few laughs as much as I, here’s a recorded session of both McCain’s and Obama’s roast. (They run a little long, over 9 minutes each, but if you can spare the time–and haven’t seen them already–I think you’ll enjoy them a lot.)