{"id":6969,"date":"2026-06-26T15:21:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/happy-birthday-mel-brooks-the-2000-year-old-man-is-turning-100\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:21:41","slug":"happy-birthday-mel-brooks-the-2000-year-old-man-is-turning-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/happy-birthday-mel-brooks-the-2000-year-old-man-is-turning-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday, Mel Brooks. The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F06%2F132349188.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>NEW YORK \u2014 The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100.\u00a0Mel Brooks\u00a0on Sunday will celebrate his centennial birthday.<\/p>\n<p>The comedian and filmmaker has been awaiting the milestone. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Judd Apatow titled his retrospective documentary on him:\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/21\/entertainment\/mel-brooks-doc-will-include-posthumous-interviews-with-david-lynch-rob-reiner-its-a-tribute\/\">Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Mel Brooks attends the premiere of \u201cMel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!\u201d at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Jan. 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for HBO<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was born to make people laugh,\u201d Brooks says in the film. \u201cSo, I do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cShow of Shows,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/15\/entertainment\/mel-brooks-was-with-carl-reiner-when-he-collapsed-and-died\/\">Brooks met\u00a0Carl Reiner<\/a>, who\u2019d remain a lifelong friend and with whom he created the \u201c2000 Year Old Man\u201d sketches.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Reiner would pepper Brooks\u2019 ancient man with questions about what Jesus was like. \u201cJesus \u2026 yes, yes,\u201d Brooks would answer. \u201cThin lad. Wore sandals. Always walked around with 12 other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brooks went on to make classic comedies like \u201cThe Producers,\u201d \u201cBlazing Saddles,\u201d \u201cYoung Frankenstein\u201d and \u201cHigh Anxiety.\u201d It all started,\u00a0Brooks told The Associated Press in 2021, with his childhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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,\u201d Brooks recalled. \u201cI was once interviewed, and the guy said, \u2018What was the happiest part of your life? Was it winning the Academy Award? Was it <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/20\/entertainment\/dave-chappelle-made-a-mrs-robinson-joke-to-anne-bancroft-and-it-completely-backfired-f-king-terrible\/\">marrying Anne Bancroft<\/a>?\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Actors Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner pose for a publicity portrait in 1974 for their program \u201c2000 And Thirteen Year Old Man,\u201d which was the fourth comedy album with featuring the duo\u2019s 2000 Year Old Man character.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Johnny Carson and Mel Brooks on the first show of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on Oct. 1, 1962. <span class=\"credit\">NBCUniversal via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Mel Brooks acting in his film, \u201cHigh Anxiety\u201d in May 1977. <span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Jim Palmer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe guy said, \u2018What happened at 9?\u2019 I said, \u2018Homework.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In April, Brooks submitted a video message to Eddie Murphy to honor him for his\u00a0AFI Life Achievement Award. In May,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/no-joke-ahead-of-his-100th-birthday-mel-brooks-donates-his-hilarious-archive-to-the-national-comedy-center-180988741\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he announced<\/a>\u00a0that he was donating thousands of his documents and photographs to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been proud to say that I make people laugh for a living,\u201d Brooks said then in a statement. \u201cSo, knowing that my work will have a home at comedy\u2019s national archive and continue making people laugh leaves me with a deep sense of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Mel Brooks in high spirits at the opening night party for the Limelight Club in London, England, in the 1970s. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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: \u201cI was Mel Brooks, one of the funniest little Jews to walk the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked in that AP 2021 interview if he thought much about death, Brooks said no.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave up after 60 thinking about it because if I did, I\u2019d be thinking about it all the time. So I don\u2019t think about it much. When and if it happens, it\u2019s going to be a sad day \u2014 for everybody but me,\u201d Brooks said, laughing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoy living,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019d like to do it as long as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/26\/entertainment\/happy-birthday-mel-brooks-the-2000-year-old-man-is-turning-100\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK \u2014 The 2000 Year Old Man is turning 100.\u00a0Mel Brooks\u00a0on Sunday will celebrate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/132349188.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}