{"id":2244931,"date":"2026-01-22T03:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2244931"},"modified":"2026-01-22T03:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:00:22","slug":"the-99-year-old-man-is-a-sweeping-tribute-to-a-comic-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-99-year-old-man-is-a-sweeping-tribute-to-a-comic-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"The 99 Year Old Man!’ is a sweeping tribute to a comic genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s not often we get to pay tribute, in full, to our giants while they\u2019re still with us. But in \u201cMel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!\u201d<\/a> Judd Apatow dutifully and affectionately celebrates the laugh-filled life of a comedy legend who\u2019s still here to tell the story \u2014 and the jokes \u2014 himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe 99 Year Old Man,\u201d which debuts Thursday in two parts on HBO and HBO Max, is a big-hearted tribute to Brooks, an indefatigable comic force who did more than most anyone to lighten the mood of the 20th century. At 99 (he\u2019ll turn 100 in June), Brooks remains a remarkably great raconteur.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the cleverest tricks by directors Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio is playing some of Brooks\u2019 stories \u2014 like a memorable lunch with Cary Grant \u2014 across not just his sit-down interviews with them, but over multiple talk show appearances. He\u2019s been telling some of these jokes for decades. It doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019re still good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe 99 Year Old Man\u201d takes the whole life in: the formative childhood in Brooklyn; the Sid Caesar-aided entry to \u201cYour Show of Shows\u201d; the lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner; the 2000 Year Old Man sketches; \u201cThe Producers\u201d; the marriage to Anne Bancroft; \u201cBlazing Saddles,\u201d and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But if there\u2019s an ongoing question in \u201cThe 99 Year Old Man,\u201d it\u2019s posed early by Apatow, who appears on-screen as Brooks\u2019 interviewer. Do people really know who he is? \u201cNo,\u201d Brooks answers straightaway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That might sound like an odd answer for someone who has so unabashedly lived nearly a century in the public eye. Yet Brooks has been such a non-stop performer that it can sometimes be difficult to see where the schtick ends and the self begins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One person describes Brooks, as a newborn, thinking the delivery doctor smacking him on the rear was applause. In an earlier clip, an interviewer laments Brooks\u2019 apparent lack of introspection. He replies that he\u2019s merely \u201ca coalescence of vapor.\u201d When Brooks gave his Oscar speech, for the screenplay to \u201cThe Producers,\u201d he said he would speak from the heart: \u201cBa-bum, ba-bum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So is what\u2019s inside Brooks just jokes? I\u2019d say \u2014 and I think this is what makes \u201cThe 99 Year Old Man\u201d not just an exhaustive documentary but a moving and even stirring one \u2014 it\u2019s more the opposite. Brooks\u2019 comedy, from the 2000 Year Old Man to \u201cHistory of the World, Part I,\u201d has always derived from something deeper, more personal and intrinsically Jewish than its slapstick qualities sometimes have suggested.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cComedy is a sensational and sometimes spectacular political weapon,\u201d Brooks says in the film.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are countless big names who come in to speak to Brooks\u2019 boldness as a comedian, among them Dave Chappelle, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler and Conan O\u2019Brien. But I\u2019m tempted to think Brooks’ legacy is in how, for him, life and comedy are one: pulse and punchline together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You can see that in Brooks\u2019 decades of marriage with Bancroft, who describes, every time her husband came home as like a party. And you can see it in Brooks\u2019 undying friendship with Reiner. After the deaths of their wives, the two friends would nightly meet to eat deli sandwiches and watch old movies. Reiner once recalled they\u2019d watch films \u201cwith lines like \u2018Secure the perimeter!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bancroft died in 2005 and Reiner in 2020. Any life that stretches as long as Brooks\u2019 takes on an elegiac quality. Appearing in the documentary, before their deaths, are both Rob Reiner and David Lynch (whom Brooks, a believer, got to direct \u201cThe Elephant Man\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But the losses that add up in Brooks\u2019 life never outstrip the laughter. You\u2019re left wondering if Brooks is one of the funniest people to ever live, or one of the wisest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cComedy is lively. Comedy is joy,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what keeps us going. We have to look forward to little happinesses, little joys.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!\u201d an HBO Max release, begins streaming Thursday. Running time: 216 minutes (playing in two parts). Three stars out of four.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newstimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not often we get to pay tribute, in full, to our giants while they\u2019re still with us. But in \u201cMel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!\u201d Judd Apatow dutifully and affectionately celebrates the laugh-filled life of a comedy legend who\u2019s still here to tell the story \u2014 and the jokes \u2014 himself. \u201cThe 99 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2244932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[310567,392515,370692,315578,37056,31595,52337,396393,27606,348478,350240,434504,434506,345440,313298,434509,345437,345439,397379,434507,434508,359403,331637,434505],"class_list":["post-2244931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-adam-sandler","tag-anne-bancroft","tag-carl-reiner","tag-cary-grant","tag-conan-obrien","tag-dave-chappelle","tag-david-lynch","tag-jake-coyle","tag-jerry-seinfeld","tag-judd-apatow","tag-mel-brooks","tag-mel-brooks-documentary-review","tag-michael-bonfiglio","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-package-100505-member-choice-news-analysis-option","tag-product-31388-premium-entertainment","tag-product-33328-ap-premium-entertainment-other","tag-product-33330-ap-premium-entertainment-movies","tag-product-33333-ap-premium-entertainment-reviews","tag-product-41019-news-analysis-dsa","tag-rob-reiner","tag-sarah-silverman","tag-sid-caesar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/The-99-Year-Old-Man-is-a-sweeping-tribute-to.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2244931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2244933,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244931\/revisions\/2244933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2244932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2244931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2244931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2244931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}