2000 Year Old Man

2000 Year Old Man

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 improvise 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.

1. 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)
2. 2000 and One Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)
3. Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Cannes Film Festival (1962)
4. 2000 and Thirteen (1973)
5. The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 (1998)

The last in the series won the 1998 Grammy Award for Spoken Word Performance.