A very happy 100th birthday to Mel Brooks, who was making me laugh my ass off decades before I knew who the hell he was.
I think I first laid eyes on him when Mel and his old buddy Carl Reiner introduced “The 2000 Year Old Man” to the world (they’d been doing bits at parties, George Burns threatened to steal the material if they didn’t do something with it, and finally Steve Allen persuaded them to record the act for an album).
But he wasn’t a rookie. Mel had been doing standup in the Borscht Belt; went on to write for Sid Caesar with the likes of Woody Allen and Neil Simon; and created “Get Smart!” with Buck Henry.
And then, the movies. Holy underwear! In 1974 Mel released “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” In the same year. I was pretending to study journalism at the University of Northern Colorado that year, and my bros and I lost what remained of our minds watching those flicks.
Mine never returned. But Mel’s just keeps hopping along like some furshlugginer Energizer Bunny. I’m retired, but he’s still working.
And The New York Times has 100 reasons why this should excite you. There are more, I’m certain. Give us yours in comments.
Mad Blog Media 
And lest we forget this one:
A classic. “The Producers” flew under my radar … I didn’t catch that one until after “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” How the hell did I miss that? It was right up my alley.
“History of the World, Part 1” I saw in Portland, when I was working in Corvallis. “The Inquisition” was the best part of that one.
I would have missed it but one of my Jewish grad student buddies invited me to Hillel House for pot luck and watching The Producers. What a gas that was!
We watched “Space Balls” today for our birthday wish to him. “May the schwartz be with you.” It’s in the five movie boxed set we have on Blu-ray discs.
He doesn’t look a day over 2,000 years old.
Reminds me, we’re all out of Saran-wrap.
Mel did a great job keeping character actors employed. Cloris Leachman, Charlie Callas, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, etc. You could always count on a familiar, quirky face in his flicks.
Korman and Kahn were in both of his 1974 movies. He knew we wouldn’t get tired of seeing them.
Cloris killed in “Young Frankenstein.” She had about half the money lines.
Hell, waddn’t nobody a passenger in that stagecoach. Everybody was taking their pulls. Some of the outtakes are funnier than the bits that made it into the film.