LOS ANGELES — Kevin Nealon appeared to be fighting back genuine tears as he delivered one of the biggest laugh lines at a memorial service Sunday night for the comedian Garry Shandling.

“The sad irony of all this,” Mr. Nealon said, “is that Garry is reunited with his mother for all eternity.”

Mr. Nealon’s quip came after other speakers in the packed Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles had described Mr. Shandling’s mother, Muriel, as smothering, wounding and, as the security consultant Gavin de Becker, a longtime friend of Mr. Shandling’s, put it, “awful.”

Mr. Nealon was keeping it authentic — one of Mr. Shandling’s oft-repeated entreaties — but he also understood the importance of landing that punch line.