The 2000 Year Old Man is a persona in a comedy skit, originally created by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner in 1961.
Mel Brooks played the oldest man in the world, interviewed by Carl Reiner in a series of comedy routines that appeared on television, as well as being made into a collection of records. In a Jewish accent, Brooks would ad lib answers to topics such as the earliest known language ("basic Rock"), the creation of the Cross ("it was easier to put together than the Star of David"; "to me it seemed...simple. I didn't know then it was eloquent!"), and Joan of Arc ("Know her? I went with her, dummy, I went with her!"). The 2000-year-old man's birthday was October 16 (the year was never specified).
The inspiration for the skit was a tape-recorded exchange between Brooks and Reiner at a party. The tape recorder was brought into the mix shortly after the opening salvos, as the two comics soon had the party audience in stitches. In 1961, when the duo began doing the skit on television, Brooks had just undergone surgery for gout. Because of his post-surgical discomfort, Brooks quipped, "I feel like a 2000-year-old man," which led Reiner to begin questioning him about what it's like to be a 2000-year-old man and to describe history as Brooks saw it.
Brooks and Reiner have released five comedy albums. The 2000 Year Old Man character appeared on one track for each of the first three albums, and the entirety of the final two.
The last in the series won the 1998 Grammy Award for Spoken Word Performance.[1]
| The 2000 Year Old Man | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animated television special |
| Directed by | Leo Salkin |
| Produced by | Leo Salkin |
| Written by | Mel Brooks Carl Reiner |
| Starring | Mel Brooks (voice) Carl Reiner (voice) |
| Music by | Mort Garson |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Release date | January 11, 1975 |
| Running time | 30 min. |
A half-hour animated television special, The 2000 Year Old Man, premiered January 11, 1975,[2] incorporating some of the original recordings.[2] This special has since been released on VHS videocassette and DVD. The musical introduction was Bach's Sinfonia to Cantata #29 performed on a Moog synthesizer by Mort Garson.
All five comedy albums were compiled and newly remastered on a 3-CD/1-DVD Box Set by Shout! Factory for the 50th anniversary. The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History DVD was released November 24, 2009 and features an interview with Reiner and Brooks; the 1975 animated 2000 Year Old Man television special, and clips of the two appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and The New Steve Allen Show.
Many of the jokes (especially the caveman jokes) were eventually brought to the screen in Brooks' film History of the World, Part I.
Mel Brooks appeared as the 2000 Year Old Man to help celebrate the 2000th episode of the original Jeopardy! hosted by Art Fleming (February 21, 1972), in which the three highest-scoring undefeated champions at that point returned to play an abbreviated game for charities. During his pre-game appearance he recounted how the show was done 2,000 years earlier – "It wasn't this hippy-happy-dappy game you've got here ... the moment you walked out of your cave – Jeopardy!"[3]
Mel Brooks adapted the character to create the 2500 Year Old Brewmaster for Ballantine Beer in the 1960s. Interviewed by Dick Cavett in a series of ads, the Brewmaster (in a German accent, as opposed to the 2000 Year Old Man's Jewish voice) said he was inside the original Trojan horse and "could've used a six-pack of fresh air."[4]
In the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", characters incorrectly referred to The 2000 Year Old Man as "The 2000-Pound Man thing" and "The 2000-Dollar Man thing". When Mel Brooks was told to play the Carl Reiner part, he angrily replied, "Listen, why don't you play Carl Reiner, and I'll play Police Chief Wiggum? I hate Carl Reiner!"
In the episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip entitled "The Option Period", comedy writer Rick Tahoe uses The 2000 Year Old Man as an example of an ideal comedy sketch.
The 2000 Year Old Man is mentioned in the episode of The Nanny entitled "One False Mole and You're Dead".