O’Brien’s humor sure measures up

“I am almost through a 32-city tour,’’ said the Brookline native. “This is the town that means the most to me.’’

After a video featuring a grossly overweight and unemployed O’Brien making a Crisco and Doritos smoothie, the comic walked onstage at the sold-out Citi Wang Theatre wearing a Paul Pierce jersey and greeted his family members in the audience, 300 of them, he said, none of whom paid for a ticket.

The bearded O’Brien didn’t miss a chance to skewer NBC, which promoted him to “The Tonight Show’’ throne last June and then announced less than eight months later that it was giving the coveted time slot back to Jay Leno, prompting O’Brien to walk away. He did a sly Leno impression, saying it was of the rapper Ludacris, and detailed the eight stages of denial for out-of-work talk show hosts: stage six — 36 hours of Red Bull and Halo.

It’s hard to feel too sorry for someone who got a $33 million buyout. But O’Brien doesn’t want our sympathy; he wants us to laugh at him. And to watch his new TBS show, which launches in November.

Following an opening set of intriguingly absurd musical comedy from the wooly-haired Reggie Watts, O’Brien brought it all back home. He played a few songs on guitar, including one about his hardscrabble upbringing as the son of a Ropes & Gray lawyer mother and a Brigham and Women’s microbiologist father. Sometimes when he gets homesick in Los Angeles, he said, he hires an actor to wear a Bruins jersey and call him a queer.

The Boston crowd didn’t get special guests Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, as the New Yorkers did, but they did get Ed Helms from “The Office’’ singing at the keyboard. And, of course, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on video talking about doing his business on Revere Beach. They also got the gangly Conan in a skin-tight pink paisley leather suit pointing out his unmistakable lack of a posterior.

O’Brien is an irresistible combination of smart and silly, self-deprecating and smirking. What’s not to love about a Harvard grad who calls himself Coco and uses the word “awesomesauce’’? It doesn’t hurt that he’s skinny and 6-foot-4, a few inches more when you count the cowlick.

His humor isn’t for everyone, but when he softened his quirky edges for the mainstream “Tonight Show’’ audience, it dampened the appeal for his loyal fans, too. For those who appreciate his juvenile wit, who live for his string dance, no matter how often they’ve seen it, it’s a relief to see O’Brien up to his old, off-kilter tricks.