Dave Chappelle worked with Mel Brooks on Robin Hood: Men in Tights.Brooks once introduced Chappelle to his wife, Anne Bancroft.Chappelle made a joke in reference to The Graduate, which Bancroft and Brooks did not find funny.<\/p>\n
And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson.\n<\/p>\n
In HBO’s documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man (out Jan. 22), Dave Chappelle<\/a> recalls spending time with Mel Brooks<\/a>, who directed him in Robin Hood: Men in Tights \u2014 and though he’s enjoyed a lovely relationship with the Blazing Saddles filmmaker, he didn’t make a good first impression on his wife, Anne Bancroft.\n<\/p>\n “Sometimes he’d take me to lunch, and his old friend Carl Reiner was directing a movie on the next soundstage, and then at some point,” Chappelle says, “the two of them started doing the ‘2000 Year Old Man,’ the greatest comedy routine by two of the greatest comics, and me as the audience. I\u2019ll never forget it.'”\n<\/p>\n Dave Chappelle in Pasadena in February 2025.<\/p>\n Leon Bennett\/Getty<\/p>\n Chappelle doesn’t treasure the memory of meeting Bancroft for the first time.\n<\/p>\n “Then I met his wife. She comes and says, \u2018Oh, Mel says so many wonderful things about you,'” Chappelle remembers. She goes on and on and gushes about how much she likes me.”\n<\/p>\n