# Happy 100th Mel Brooks. Funny, I thought he was already over 2000 when I was a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2026, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242 "2026-06-28T08:29:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/21 "2026-06-28T20:40:09Z")
I recently found _Get Smart_ on Prime Video, the whole series for $19.99. So I snapped it up, and we’ve started watching them. Good stuff. Happy birthday, Mel. You’ve done your part to make the world a better place. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/22 "2026-06-28T22:43:31Z")
TCM is running his stuff today. Spaceballs is on now, Blazing Saddles next. Can’t remember if they have a west coast feed, but I’m on the east coast feed ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/23 "2026-06-28T22:54:11Z")
I like his version of To Be Or Not To Be, more than the original version with Jack Benny. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/24 "2026-06-28T23:22:23Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > I recently found _Get Smart_ on Prime Video, the whole series for $19.99. So I snapped it up, and we’ve started watching them. Good stuff. Try this then- [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CVyJkKKfRFs/maxresdefault.jpg "Melbourne Ska Orchestra - Get Smart (Official FULL Version)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyJkKKfRFs) > [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > TCM is running his stuff today. Spaceballs is on now, Blazing Saddles next. Can’t remember if they have a west coast feed, but I’m on the east coast feed I am taping Young Frankenstien. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/25 "2026-06-28T23:34:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@dirtball](#): > > > > I recently found _Get Smart_ on Prime Video, the whole series for $19.99. So I snapped it up, and we’ve started watching them. Good stuff. > > Try this then- Wonderful! Fun video, fun performance. Thanks for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/26 "2026-06-28T23:35:14Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > I recently found _Get Smart_ on Prime Video, the whole series for $19.99. So I snapped it up, and we’ve started watching them. Good stuff. It’s a great series with touches of comedic genius, but of the five seasons, the earliest were the best. It started to run out of steam at around the fourth season. But I re-watched it recently and thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope you do, too! ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/27 "2026-06-28T23:38:08Z")
I saw him several years ago in person when he was about 92 or so, shortly after Gene Wilder had died. It was at a screening of Blazing Saddles, with about 600+ folks in attendance. After the film, he came out to talk. What an amazing man! On his feet constantly moving around the stage cracking jokes, fielding questions, being awesome. I hope he lives as long as he wants to. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/28 "2026-06-28T23:44:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s a great series with touches of comedic genius, but of the five seasons, the earliest were the best. It started to run out of steam at around the fourth season. But I re-watched it recently and thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope you do, too! I remember watching it “back in the day” and liking it. But when it started in 1965 I was eight years old. Starting on it a week or two ago, I expected to see it differently, but in my mind, it’s holding up well, at least so far. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/29 "2026-06-29T00:10:55Z")
Extra bonus points go to any episode of _Get Smart_ that features Bernie Kopell as Siegfried or Dick Gautier as Hymie the robot. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/30 "2026-06-29T00:52:05Z")
If you have an insatiable appetite for words about Brooks, check out his fat autobiography _All About Me_ or the just as fat biography by Patrick McGilligan, _Funny Man_. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/31 "2026-06-29T00:58:56Z")
There’s a two-part documentary on Brooks, which premiered on HBO earlier this year: _[Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33035435/)_ I enjoyed it a lot, and learned a lot about him and his career that I’d not known before. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/32 "2026-06-29T01:05:05Z")
If you’ll indulge me for a sec… When I was very little and my parents started taking me to movies with them, their first two choices didn’t go so well. First was Willy Wonka, which scared me. I hated seeing the children being hurt and the psychedelic boat trip freaked me out. The next one, inexplicably, was “The Legend of Boggy Creek”, a bigfoot movie. In one scene, a man is using the toilet in a cabin in the woods when Bigfoot reaches in and pulls him out of the bathroom window. We lived in a house surrounded by forest at the time, and I was afraid to go near my bedroom window. Thanks so much, mom and dad. But… Their next two choices thoroughly entertained me. They were “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” I might not have gotten all the jokes, but I got enough of them to amuse me. And being in a theater with a crowd full of people laughing their heads off made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Maybe a six-year-old shouldn’t have seen these movies, but I’m so glad that I did. They gave me a lifelong infatuation with the cinematic arts. In essence, Brooks rescued my parents from dealing with a traumatized kid. And I know that some of my twisted sense of humor can be directly linked to being exposed to Mel at such a young age. Thank you for the laughter, Mel Brooks. Nobody should downplay your contributions to society. Making the world laugh is a noble achievement, and many of us are grateful to have been around to experience your sense of humor. (I’m sure Mel would wince at that clumsily composed tribute, but it’s from the heart!) ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/33 "2026-06-29T01:37:38Z")
Just finished watching _Blazing Saddles_ on TCM. Next up is _Young Frankenstein_. Happy Birthday, Mel, and thanks for the laughs! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/34 "2026-06-29T05:43:55Z")
> [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > TCM is running his stuff today. Spaceballs is on now, Blazing Saddles next. Our local movie chain has each week at 7pm the Tuesday Night Classic (TNC). Last Tuesday’s was _Spaceballs_ so I saw it on the big screen for the first time since it came out. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/35 "2026-06-29T11:18:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Brooks’ career has one of the oddest in the business. He was over 40 when he made _The Producers_, which, as everybody today forgets, was a complete and utter flop commercially, though he won the Oscar for best screenplay. His second movie was _The Twelve Chairs_, an interesting redo of a Russian novel that nobody saw. _Blazing Saddles_ was released a full seven years after _The Producers_. He became not just an overnight success but an overnight genius. He has remained a genius even though he hasn’t had any flashes of true genius in decades. > > Wishing you 1900 more years, Mel. But it’s not as if he was doing nothing before _The Producers_ – he had already created **Get Smart** (which had his name on the ultimate opening credit), not to mention his success with _The 1000 Year Old Man_ (both on TV and as a record)_._ He had also done the Oscar-winning (1964) short animated feature _The Critic_. > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PramR5oxn50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PramR5oxn50) So when _The Producers_ was first promoted I knew who Brooks was, and was anxious to see th movie. It may have been a commercial flop, but it was an instant cult hit, and when it was available for TV, it certainly wasn’t shunned by the major networks. So Mel Brooks wasn’t exactly an overnight genius – he’d earned it in pretty visible ways well before **Blazing Saddles** ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/36 "2026-06-29T17:11:18Z")
He had a cult following, but _Blazing Saddles_ made him nationally famous to the broad public. Culturally speaking that’s a huge difference in fame and recognition. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/37 "2026-06-29T17:14:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He had a cult following, but _Blazing Saddles_ made him nationally famous to the broad public. 1974 was Brooks’ _annus miribilis_: both _Blazing Saddles_ and _Young Frankenstein_ were released that year, giving him the #2 and #3 box-office films of the year, and, as you note, giving him the widespread fame that put his work, from that point forward, on a different level of visibility. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/38 "2026-06-29T17:39:37Z")
What was #1? I looked up what were the top ten box office films of 1974. The list I saw had _Blazing Saddles_ as #1. A different one had _The Towering Inferno_ first. Every list seemed to have the top five in different orders, although _The Godfather_ kept coming in sixth. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/39 "2026-06-29T17:40:41Z")
Bernie Kopell is still with us too, He turned 93 this month. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242/40 "2026-06-29T17:42:13Z")
> [@saucywench](#): > > What was #1? I looked up what were the top ten box office films of 1974. The list I saw had _Blazing Saddles_ as #1. A different one had _The Towering Inferno_ first. Given that I grabbed the info for my post from Wikipedia, I’m going to guess _The Towering Inferno_, as [it’s listed as #1 on the 1974 list on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_in_film). But, regardless of the exact order, Brooks had two of the top five films in a single year, which is amazing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-100th-mel-brooks-funny-i-thought-he-was-already-over-2000-when-i-was-a-kid/1031242.md?page=3)