Kevin Nealon Tells A Hilarious Story About… A Thief Breaking Into His House And Stealing Garry Shandling’s Ashes?

If someone broke into your house and stole the ashes of one of your dearest friends, it’d probably be a traumatic moment with next to zero punchlines. Not for Kevin Nealon. While stopping by The Ellen Show on Wednesday, Nealon revealed that he headed out to Tennessee for a few months to ride out the pandemic, but while he was gone, his house got robbed. According to the comedian, “nothing really major” was stolen except for a few sentimental items like some watches Nealon’s fathers had left, and oh yeah, a necklace that was filled with Garry Shandling’s ashes.

While that sounds terrible, Nealon can’t help but laugh about the whole thing and say that “Garry would’ve loved this.” Before Shandling’s death, the two had been friends for almost 40 years, and Nealon kept their comedic friendship alive by dunking on his late friend and joking that Shandling gave him the ashes before he died. “He was very prepared.”

And the laughs just kept on coming. Via Entertainment Weekly:

“What I’ve learned, is when your house has been broken into, you should check the pawnshops, like if you lost a watch, or if you lost Garry,” Nealon shared as the audience roared with laughter. “I’ve been calling pawnshops and I’m saying, ‘You have not seen Garry, have you’ They said, ‘Garry Shandling’ And I said, ‘You may not recognize him, he’s in an urn. I’m not sure what part of him is in the urn. It might be his lips, but then again, maybe that urn’s not big enough.”

Thanks for the advice, Kevin. We’ll keep that in mind the next time someone steals the remains of a beloved comedian from our sock drawer.