Jim Gaffigan roasts gopher mascots, Rochester bell tower at State Fair

You knew he was going to have a joke or two about the food. That's always a favorite topic of Jim Gaffigan's stand-up gigs, even when he's not performing at a place as centered around gorging on grease as the Minnesota State Fair.

The famously uncontroversial comedian got the eating discussion out of the way right away Tuesday night in his hourlong set at the grandstand, which drew 9,052 ticket buyers on a weeknight; rock-star numbers, really.

After a no-joke rave about the fair's roast corn — "It's like they put sugar on it" — Gaffigan was a little less effusive about the cheese curds: "I'm probably not gonna go to the bathroom for a week," he drolly predicted.

He also dished a bit on Fairchild and Fairborne: "It's so great the Minnesota State Fair has two gay gophers for mascots." When someone corrected him and said the two costumed critters are actually an uncle and his nephew, Gaffigan politely insisted, "It's all right, you don't have to lie."

Introduced by his teen son at the start — Jack Gaffigan earned one of the night's biggest laughs when he pointed out which comic was called "America's Dad" before Jim (yep, Bill Cosby) — Gaffigan had more fun at Minnesota's expense later in the set recounting his first time performing in Rochester.

Of course, the Indiana-reared comic said he knew the state's third-biggest city was home to the Mayo Clinic. When he asked his driver what else it's known for, he was surprised to hear about the clock and bell tower originally built for the downtown fire station.

"Did I travel back in time?" Gaffigan recounted thinking, declining his driver's offer to go see it: "I don't want to overdo it." And then he imagined "a time when bells were a new technology."

Imaginary conversation #1: "You're going to that town? Well, get ready. They have a bell!"

Imaginary conversation #2: "I don't trust that bell. I don't want the government harvesting my DNA."

And that was about as political as Gaffigan got on Tuesday.