![]() On Pee-wee's Playhouse, it took the form of gleeful admonitions to his viewers to "scream real loud" whenever anyone said the week's secret word. In Pee-wee's Big Adventure, it manifested in his hilariously obsessive drive to recover his stolen bike - a quest which would cause him to trample on the feelings of friends like Amazing Larry (Lou Cutell) and Dottie (E.G. Specifically, of those parts of childhood we pretend not to see in our own children - the narcissism, the selfishness, the utter lack of basic human empathy. Yes, Pee-wee was a boy who never grew up, but he was more than that - he was one singular adult's remembrance of what it was like being a kid. It was never Peter Pan, what he was doing. ![]() The Pee-wee Herman Show at The Groundlings Theatre soon had LA hipsters lining up around the block for a midnight show that mixed puppets and parody with archival educational films – the precise fuel mixture that powered Reubens' later CBS Saturday morning show, Pee-wee's Playhouse. The character was very obviously and intentionally what folks used to call a sissy – but how could a sissy own the stage like he did? Bask in the spotlight like he did? How could a sissy so confidently and explicitly dictate the terms for his audience on how to experience him? There was something fearless in Pee-wee, something unapologetic and brash that took you a second to process. Created in 1977, while Reubens was a member of the Los Angeles sketch troupe The Groundlings, Pee-wee was part prop comic, part brat and part trickster spirit. He was an actor – but for a long time, he tried to convince the public that Pee-wee was a real person, not a character.įolks didn't know what to make of Reubens' petulant man-child at first. Reubens died Sunday of cancer at the age of 70. Of course, when it came to Pee-wee himself, with his tight gray suit, red bow tie, crew cut, rouged cheekbones and ruby-red lips, "What am I?" was the real question – it was the one he posed merely by existing. "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer!" ![]() It was one of the character's go-to bits. Pee-wee Herman, the comic creation of actor/writer Paul Reubens, would often toss taunts of the schoolyard into his casual conversation. ![]()
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