Mel Brooks on His Best Friend Carl Reiner: ‘Nobody Could Do it Better’

Brooks and Reiner created “The 2000 Year Old Man” sketch during the 1960s in which Brooks portrayed a 2,000-year-old man being interviewed by Reiner as the straight man on a variety of topics such as being married more than 200 times and children, which evoked the punchline “I have over 1500 children and not one of them ever comes to visit!” They released five profoundly influential comedy albums starting in 1960.

“When we were doing ‘The 2000 Year Old Man’ together there was no better straight man in the world,” Brooks said. “So whether he wrote or performed or he was just your best friend — nobody could do it better. He’ll be greatly missed. A tired cliché in times like this, but in Carl Reiner’s case it’s absolutely true. He will be greatly missed.”