2000 Years- Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1961)

Rating-- 6/10

The main reason I started this blog was to listen to recorded media that had an effect on pop culture-- and especially, to hear things I'd never heard before. That was the case for "2000 Years", a 1961 comedy record by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. It had only six entries on it, the most famous of which being The 2000 Year Old Man-- in which Mel Brooks is the Yiddish-accented 2000 Yeatr Old Man who has forgotten his Ancient Hebrew, who truly believes Saran Wrap is the best thing humanity has ever created (on the topic of discovering space, "dat was good"), and the trick to living 2000 years is to eat a lot of nectarines and don't run. 2000 years ago, how did everyone get around? Fear, apparently. (That made me laugh, I wasn't expecting it.)

The other five parts of the record don't seem as well known-- they are Fabiola (not very funny, in my opinion), The Astronaught (about a man going to space with seven beautiful male models, something you "shouldn't ask about"), In A Coffee House (I thought this was funny, especially the painter with his fly paintings, and the "62 Men Fell Down And Hurt Their Knee" being the only song the piano player can play, with occasional changes in lyrics to be more "current"-- i.e "Big Dick Nixon Fell Down And Hurt His Knee"), The Peruvian (who is actually German), and The Psychiatrist (who is not a doctor, but a docor, apparently.)

The main themes here seem to be plot twists and space, which goes to show how funny it can be but also how timely, particularly in the case of The Coffee House's piano player. All the stories have the same basic set-up-- Carl Reiner is interviewing an unusual character, played by Mel Brooks. And the most famous of these, the 2000 Year Old Man, would go on to have a fittingly-long timespan since 1961. He had an animated adaptation in 1975 (a frame of which is the picture for this post), a "2500 Year Old Brewmaster" themed beer commercial, a Grammy Nomination-- the comedy record sold more than a million copies in 1961.

Overall, I liked it, and I did feel like I was getting a taste of 1950s-1960s humor and pop culture. The funniest parts of the record were also the longest parts, and it was fun to laugh along with the 1960s live audience like I was going back in time somehow.