The 2000 Year Old Man – Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner

June 16, 2013

This is Father’s Day and there is probably no father older than the 2000 year old man. The character was created by comics Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner  in the late 50s and early 60s. The 2000 year old man is older now than he was then. This is such a  brilliantly funny   audio track, produced in 1960,  that I thought I would share it here today on Father’s Day.

According to Carl Reiner’s son , Rob Reiner, in a 2008 interview, the character was originally established while Reiner and Brooks were  fooling  around at  cocktail parties with friends.

Apparently, fellow comic Steve Allen, thought the 2000 year old man was so hilarious, he convinced Reiner and Brooks to try a recording. This was the first sketch of that recording. The record went on to  spawn several records, an animated piece and books .

I remember first hearing this with my Dad when it first came out. I was 8 or 9 at the time. My Dad  put the “vinyl” record on his new “hi fi” stereo.  We sat back and proceeded to laugh our heads off together.

Please note: The completed video master of this material is believed to still be under copyright to Capital Records. This segment, which is less than 5 % of the running time of the completed series is being used for educational purposes.Title 17: Chapter 1 / 107 of the United States Code provides for special instances in which copyrighted materials can legally be used without permission from the owner.

 Section 107, “Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use,” says in part: “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”