Editing 2000 Year Old Man (section)

==History==
The foundation for the routine was laid during production of ''[[Your Show of Shows]]'', where Reiner was an actor and Brooks was a writer. Reiner describes the first instance:

{{blockquote|I remember the first question I asked him. It was because I had seen a program called ''[[We the People (American TV series)|We the People Speak]]'', early television. [He puts on an announcer voice] "We the People Speak. Here’s a man who was in [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s toilet, heard Stalin say, 'I’m going to blow up the world.' I came in, I said this is good for a sketch. No one else thought so, but I turned to Mel and I said, "Here's a man who was actually seen at the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]] 2,000 years ago," and his first words were, "Oh, boy." We all fell over laughing. I said, "You knew [[Jesus]]?" "Yeah," he said, "Thin lad, wore sandals, long hair, walked around with 11 other guys. Always came into the store, never bought anything. Always asked for [[Marriage at Cana|water]]." Those were the first words, and then for the next hour or two I kept asking him questions, and he never stopped killing us.<ref name="karpel"/>}}

It began as a joke between the two that was then shared at parties. Reiner started bringing a [[tape recorder]] to the parties as Brooks never said the same thing twice. Numerous people such as [[George Burns]] suggested to the two that they put their material on an [[Comedy album|album]], but only [[Steve Allen]] managed to coax the two to come record it in his studio.<ref name="holmes"/><ref name="lee"/><ref name="pri">{{cite web |last1=Manilla |first1=Ben |last2=Strolovitch |first2=Devon |title=Mel Brooks and 'The 2000 Year Old Man' |url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-06/mel-brooks-and-2000-year-old-man |website=pri.org |publisher=Public Radio International |access-date=13 July 2019 |date=September 6, 2018}}</ref><ref name="npr">{{cite web |title=Brooks And Reiner's 2,000-Year-Old Man Turns 50 |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120909130&t=1563090177542 |website=npr.org |publisher=NPR |access-date=14 July 2019|date=November 28, 2009}}</ref> Reiner recalls the moment he and Brooks realized the first album was going to be a hit:

{{blockquote|When we made the album, the album came out, we weren't sure yet whether everybody was going to like it. And it was [[Cary Grant]], who was my neighbor at [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]], he came over and I gave him a record and I said the new record came out, you may like this. And he came back a week later, said, Can I have two dozen? I said, What are you going to do with them? He said, I'm going to take them to [[England]]. I said, You'll take these to England? He said, Yeah, they speak English there. Anyway, he came back and said, She loved it. I said who? [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|The Queen Mother]]. I said, You played this in [[Buckingham Palace]]? He said yes. And then Mel says, Well, if the biggest [[shiksa]] in the world loves it, we're home free.<ref name="npr"/>}}