Any Mel Brooks documentary is expected to be Jewish. But HBO’s “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” — Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio’s four-hour, two-part documentary series about the iconic comedian and filmmaker — is an overflowing treasure trove of Jewish tidbits and jokes. The movie finds Jewish influence in every part of Brooks’ life, not just in the places you’d expect (like his rabbi-mohel role in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and the Yiddishkeit of “Spaceballs”).

It’s almost too much, except that one can never have enough Mel Brooks.

What struck me the most about the abundance of Jewish moments is just the kind of Jewish example Brooks set. One that was confident, authentic, and proud. He may be a diminutive Jew, he may not be a Paul Newman, but he walks into a room with enough swagger to win everyone over.

Mel Brooks made being Jewish cool — and the many admiring Jewish talking heads in the documentary say so, from Jerry Seinfeld to Adam Sandler to Sarah Silverman to Josh Gad, who is working with Brooks on a “Spaceballs” sequel. Brooks, now 99, continues to instill in us all a great pride in being Jewish.

Or as Brooks shares in the documentary: “Little short funny looking Jews who are trepidatious about entering show business, if I can do it, you can do it.” 

Here are some of the most delightful Jewish details from the documentary series:

Mel Brooks loved his Jewish mother

You won’t find much of the overbearing Jewish mother stereotype in this documentary. In fact, Kate “Kitty” Kaminsky, who raised four boys on her own after their father died of tuberculosis, is the one Brooks credits for his joie de vivre.

Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky in 1926) tells Apatow that while Kitty, who immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, was tough, she was also “good-natured.”

He recalls how his mother would cook a full breakfast every morning, though he jokes: “We never had bacon because my grandmother lived next door, and if she ever walked in and saw bacon, we’d all be arrested.״

He says that on cold mornings, his mother “dressed me under the covers so I was warm,” and would sing along to Bing Crosby on the radio. “She filled me with music right from the beginning,” Brooks says. “She raised our spirits with her ever-positive outlook on life.”

Later in the documentary, Brooks shares that he sent his mother every award he won.

He didn’t experience antisemitism growing up

Growing up in a tenement in Brooklyn (365 South 3rd Street, to be exact), Brooks says he didn’t experience antisemitism because, he jokes, “Every single human being in Brooklyn at that time was Jewish.”

It was only when he traveled to Manhattan that he realized that there were other types of people. Brooks didn’t have much growing up, but he says that despite being short and not traditionally handsome, he always felt like a star as a kid because he could make people laugh.

“I was the comic center of my neighborhood, I never felt inferior,” he says. “I was given a lot of love as a child — I just wanted to keep it going.” 

He faced antisemitism in the army — and refused to let it slide

Brooks and all of his brothers joined the military during WWII. His son, Nicky, even talks about how his father experienced PTSD after the war. Brooks recalls a fellow soldier calling him a “Jew bastard” and punching him in the eye. “I didn’t flee, and I didn’t cry,” Brooks says. “I grabbed him, and I hit him.”

‘If there was no Sid Caeser, there would be no Mel Brooks’

That quote comes from Mel Brooks’ biography, “All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business,” which is heavily featured in the documentary.

Brooks was sure he was headed to work in the garment industry like his neighbors, but then, he met Don Appel, who gave him a job at the Butler Lodge in the Borscht Belt. When a comedian couldn’t make it, Brooks would sometimes fill in.

Appel also represented Sid Caesar, and it was Caesar who hired Brooks to work on “Your Show of Shows,” despite the fact that the show’s producers didn’t want him there. It was the gig that helped jumpstart his career.

“If you are Jewish and it’s the late 40s and you want to make it and you have some comedy talent, there are a lot of things that aren’t open to you, but this is the way for a Mel Brooks to make it,” Conan O’Brien astutely observes.

Carl Reiner thought that the ‘2000 Year Old Man’ would only be popular among Jews

The most important friendship in Brooks’ life was, by far, his friendship with Carl Reiner. The two met working together on “Your Show of Shows,” and it was with Reiner that Brooks came up with the first bit that made him an admired figure in front of the camera — “The 2000 Year Old Man.”

Reiner and Brooks didn’t think it would be more than a party trick.

“You have to remember, 1950 was five years after the war. The Jews are pretty well maligned, and he’s doing a middle European Jewish accent,” Reiner says of Brooks’ mannerisms.

But the sketches became incredibly popular, and the album remains a favorite among comedy lovers. It centers Brooks and really channels the Jewish men he grew up around in Brooklyn.

Without Mel Brooks, there would be no Gene Wilder

The late, great Gene Wilder is featured in the documentary through archival footage, and just like there would be no Mel Brooks without Sid Caesar, it’s clear that Wilder, who began his career in Brooks’ wonderfully Jewish “The Producers” (opposite the one and only Zero Mostel), felt exactly the same way about Brooks. Wilder was a late addition to “Blazing Saddles” as Waco Kid, and the two collaborated on the iconic “Young Frankenstein” — movies that launched Wilder’s career. We’re kvelling.

Brooks found comfort in a place called yene velt

Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart and Dom DeLuise and their spouses were invited by Norman Lear to vacation together, for years, once or twice a year. It was a group they called “yenem velt,” Yiddish for “the other world,” and they would spend those weekends laughing together and enjoying each other’s company. And also, singing “oh yenen velt, oh yenen velt” to the tune of “O Christmas Tree.”

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks were the absolute best of friends

Carl Reiner was Mel Brooks’ best friend until the very end.

There’s an extremely endearing footage of Brooks honoring Reiner, in a room full of people and joking, “For 25 years, [Carl] made me out to be this Jewish person and there was money and I went along, and now, tonight, here in this stupid place, I’m gonna reveal I am really a gentile born in Waco, Texas. This is not my nose,” he says, peeling a prosthetic nose only to reveal his flesh and blood nose underneath.

Reiner seems so overjoyed, brimming with laughter and kissing his face. If there is a platonic bashert, well, Brooks and Reiner would certainly be it.

Brooks, who lost his beloved second wife, Anne Bancroft, to cancer in 2005, and Reiner, whose wife, Estelle, died in 2008, would spend their evenings together watching movies and eating dinner in front of the TV, falling asleep to the din of the TV. (You can witness their evening ritual on Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.“)

Brooks was there when Carl Reiner died in 2020. He kept asking the paramedics to keep trying to resuscitate his friend.

“I just didn’t want him to go, I wouldn’t accept it. … I love him so much,” Brooks recalls.

Reiner’s son, the late Rob Reiner, talks about how Brooks kept watching movies in Carl Reiner’s home after his death, and asked the family to let him know when they wanted to sell the house. Rob would joke that perhaps they should sell the house with Mel in it to raise the market value.

During the press tour for “99 Year Old Man!” Brooks shared that he was glad Carl died when he did because “he never could have survived this terrible, terrible thing,” he said, referring to the December 2025 murders of Rob and Michelle Reiner.

@hopesloopentertainment

Mel Brooks said he was thankful that his good friend and comedy partner, Carl Reiner, was not alive to see the death of his son #RobReiner 🥲 #CarlReiner #MelBrooks

♬ original sound – Hope Sloop | TV Reviewer

This movie has a lot to say about why Jews are so good at comedy

“Jewish timing created most of modern comedy,” Brooks rightfully asserts. “There’s a great energy that fear can create, fight or flight — it’s there for every Jew.”

Mel Brooks is known for his art making fun of Nazis and antisemites, from “The Producers” to his “Hitler on Ice” to the controversial Spanish Inquisition sketch.

“Comedy destroys the dignity of the enemy,” Brooks says in the documentary.

“It’s what we Jews do as survival. It’s a survival mechanism of comedy. Humor is a way to keep you going and keep those Nazis at bay,” Rob Reiner also muses.

Perhaps the documentary’s best line about Jewish comedy comes from President Barack Obama. When honoring Brooks in 2009, Obama quoted Brooks, saying,  “Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable, so every 10 Jews, God designed one to be crazy and amuse the others.”

And what a gift from God Mel Brooks is. The documentary is a reminder of the endless laughter he has brought and continues to bring with every rewatch of “Young Frankenstein,” “Robin Hood: Men In Tights,” and so many other great movies.