CollegeCandy » paul reubens

Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Will Always, ALWAYS Creep Me

Jess - NYU — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:00:15 +0000


While spending a glorious Friday night in with myself (a week like my last week should have never been forced upon a normal human), I happened to cruse by a Jezebel post concerning one Natasha Lyonne.  Remember that chick?  Slums of Beverly Hills cool and quirky…until she like, sorta went nuts and threatened people’s dogs and presumably took every drug on planet.
Well, I guess she’s back and semi-normal, and Street Carnage has just posted a link of Lyonne watching herself as a little kid on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.  The video of Natasha watching herself is here.  She seems a little stoned and kind of annoying.  She’s not the reason I’m posting.
The reason I’m posting is because of the Pee-Wee clip she's in.  Holy, holy creepy.  As a child, Paul Rubens always made me feel uneasy, and as I watch this clip now, I see I was way ahead of the game when it came to sensing strangeness.
1) Who dressed these kids?  Is it supposed to look like the kids dressed themselves?  Why don’t their clothes fit??
2) Who is that semi-retarded looking old man playing with the children?  I mean, is he supposed to be slow?  Why is a 50-year-old guy hanging out with eight year olds?  Why is Pee Wee allowing such creepiness!?  Look at that vacant expression!  Something is just not right with him…
3) Their “lunch” consists of white bread and one slice of yellow American cheese!  Dear jesus, Pee Wee!  What about nutritional content??!
4) Pee Wee’s got crazy eyes.  Plus his pants are too tight.  All signs that he will eventually masturbate in a public theater to gay porn…

Pee Wee’s back! (and serious)

Jess - NYU — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:04:20 +0000

Remember Pee Wee Herman?

I do. According to my memory, Pee Wee’s Playhouse was one of the scariest shows on television. I know, I know, you loved it. Everyone in my generation and beyond loved it. But I was scared shitless. Something about the wacky, unhinged nature of the world made me feel strange. If a chair could talk, what else could happen?!

Even if you’re not completely familiar with the show, I’m sure you at least remember Paul Reubens, the man behind the wacky character, and the famed mugshot that made a nation reevaluate their love of that goofy, staccato laugh. In case you never watched the news in 1991 (or for years after), Reubens was arrested in July of that year for allegedly whipping out his Johnson in an adult movie theater, a charge I don’t personally take seriously (I mean, you go to an adult movie theater to do what…sit there quietly and watch?), but nevertheless ruined his career and ability to play an innocent character ever again.

These days, the dude’s pushing 50 and still acting, most recently in a hilarious (but still cringe inducingly creepy) guest appearance on 30 Rock. He’s also scheduled to appear in a movie opposite Demi Moore and Emma Thompson. All things considered, it seems Reubens has been able to dust himself, and those gross but lame charges, off and move on.

In these Any-Publicity-Is-Good-Publicity days, Reubens’s 1991 banishment from the entertainment world seems harsh and strange, just another reminder of how easily we forgive and forget when it comes to celebrities in 2007. These days, flashing one’s naughty bits isn’t considered indecent exposure (although I maintain it certainly is), it’s considered front page news.

Gross.