Happy birthday, 2000 Year Old Man. Mel Brooks is turning 100
[June 26, 2026]
By JAKE COYLE
NEW YORK (AP) — The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100. Mel Brooks on
Sunday will celebrate his centennial birthday.
The comedian and filmmaker has been awaiting the milestone. Earlier this
year, Judd Apatow titled his retrospective documentary on him: “Mel
Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!”
“I was born to make people laugh,” Brooks says in the film. “So, I do
that.”
Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 28, 1926.
After serving in the Army during World War II and performing in the
Borscht Belt, Sid Caesar hired him as a writer. On his “Show of Shows,”
Brooks met Carl Reiner, who'd remain a lifelong friend and with whom he
created the “2000 Year Old Man” sketches.
Reiner would pepper Brooks' ancient man with questions about what Jesus
was like. “Jesus … yes, yes,” Brooks would answer. “Thin lad. Wore
sandals. Always walked around with 12 other guys.”
Brooks went to make classic comedies like “The Producers,” “Blazing
Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “High Anxiety.” It all started,
Brooks told The Associated Press in 2021, with his childhood in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“I wanted to keep the party going. I wanted to keep the happiness and
joy and explosions of laughter going into a dour part of our lives, not
our childhood anymore,” Brooks recalled. “I was once interviewed and the
guy said, ‘What was the happiest part of your life? Was it winning the
Academy Award? Was it marrying Anne Bancroft?’ I said no, not at all. It
was my childhood. From about 4 or 5 to 9, it was the most exciting,
happiest, joyous life that anyone could experience.
“The guy said, 'What happened at 9?’ I said, 'Homework.'”
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Mel Brooks attends the premiere of "If You're Not In The Obit, Eat
Breakfast" on May 17, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
 In April, Brooks submitted a video
message to Eddie Murphy to honor him for his AFI life achievement
award. In May, he announced that he was donating thousands of his
documents and photographs to the National Comedy Center in
Jamestown, New York.
“I’ve always been proud to say that I make people laugh for a
living,” Brooks said then in a statement. “So, knowing that my work
will have a home at comedy’s national archive and continue making
people laugh leaves me with a deep sense of pride.”
Brooks has sometimes made mortality a joke, too. In a 1980s sketch,
he created a coin-operated gravestone for himself that played a
videotaped message. It began: “I was Mel Brooks, one of the funniest
little Jews to walk the Earth.”
When asked in that AP 2021 interview if he thought much about death,
Brooks said no.
“I gave up after 60 thinking about it because if I did, I’d be
thinking about it all the time. So I don’t think about it much. When
and if it happens it’s going to be a sad day — for everybody but
me,” Brooks said, laughing.
“I enjoy living,” he added. “I’d like to do it as long as I can.”
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