The four classic comedy albums created by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner are probably amongst the five most influential “things” that determined how I speak and write as an adult. (The other four factors are Lenny Bruce, The Firesign Theater, Kurt Vonnegut and rock critic Lester Bangs, if you care). I listened to a lot of comedy records when I was a kid. I’d listen to them over and over again, smoking pot in my parent’s basement with headphones on, unintentionally memorizing every word. To this very day I still use lines from Lenny Bruce or the Firesign Theater, probably serving only to confuse everyone around me, but I don’t care. I think this is also the reason I don’t have a West Virginia accent. They’re a part of my DNA.
The most famous sketches from the Reiner and Brooks records, obviously, were the 2000 Old Man routines. Legend has it that the idea was hatched when Reiner was visiting Brooks in the hospital after a painful surgery. Brooks exclaimed that he felt like a 2000 year old man. Reiner made like an interviewer, held an invisible microphone under Brooks’ chin and asked him what it was like to have been born before the time of Christ. Brooks told of the “discovery of women” (“A guy named Bernie…”), the development of language, how cavemen decided what was edible or not and various historical figures the 2000 year old man had encountered like Joan d’Arc (“Know her? I dated her!”), Benjamin Franklin and Moses. Soon the duo was trying their material out at Hollywood parties and eventually a tape of their improvised bits started getting passed around town.
That’s one story, there are other competing versions of this legend, but suffice to say Brooks and Reiner created an enduring classic of stand-up comedy. As a double act, Brooks and Reiner were never less then off the scale brilliant and their material was as tight as a drum (Attention Mighty Boosh and Mitchell and Webb fans, there might be something here for you). I knew that the pair had performed short versions of the 2000 year old man sketches on television several times—and there was the cartoon version in the 70s—but I’d never seen any of it. Of course these days, all one has to do is wait, because eventually everything—all of it—will turn up on the Internet.
And so it has. Behold, Brooks and Reiner performing a short excerpt from The 2000 Year Old Man:
Brooks and Reiner 1960, introduced by Johnny Carson
Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner ?¢‚ǨÀúto remake ?¢‚ǨÀú2000 Year Old Man?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ for HBO
2000 and Six Months (audio only) This is a classic
