When Donald Trump took to the stage at the Al Smith dinner, he warned the audience he would be prepared to make self-deprecating jokes.

He alluded to "modesty" being his best quality, and his "small hands".

He compared himself to Jesus the carpenter, he blamed Hillary Clinton for "corruption" and joked that, due to Ms Clinton’s "rattling on and on", he had changed his mind about his one-time nemesis comedian and actor Rosie O’Donnell.

But there was only one joke which, arguably, was a negative reference to his own campaign. It came at the expense of his wife.

Pointing to what he described as the media bias against him, he said: “Michelle Obama gives a speech. And everyone loves it, it’s fantastic. They think she's absolutely great.

"My wife Melania gives the exact same speech. And people get on her case. And I don’t get it. I don’t know why.”

Ms Trump was condemned for giving a speech at the Republican National Convention in July that matched Ms Obama’s 2008 speech, almost word for word.

The Trump campaign issued a statement shortly afterwards, allegedly penned by a Trump staffer called Meredith McIver, apologising and taking responsibility for the plagiarism.

"And it wasn’t her fault," continued Mr Trump at the dinner. "Stand up, Melania, come on. She took a lot of abuse."

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Ms Trump stood up and smiled while the audience laughed loudly and clapped.

"Oh, I’m in trouble when I go home tonight. She didn’t know about that one? Am I OK? Is she OK? Cardinal, please speak to her."

Critics said he should not have reminded the audience that he called Ms Clinton a “nasty woman” during the third presidential debate.

"They said it was the most vicious debate in the history of politics, the presidential debate, and I don’t know, are we supposed to be proud of that, or unhappy?" he asked, looking over at his rival.

Mr Trump made no mention of the numerous sexual assault claims against him - which he denied - his charitable foundation or his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Ms Clinton took the opportunity to poke fun at Mr Trump, saying that when he looked at the Statue of Liberty, he saw a "four", alluding to his ranking of women based on their appearance.