
Pee-wee’s Big Comeback - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/magazine/pee-wees-big-comeback.html
======
jcoffland
I loved Pee Wee as a kid. I always thought it was so stupid that the media
made such a big deal out of his arrest. So what of he rubbed one out in a
theater. Not a great move, granted, but our society is so incredibly sexualy
repressed. It's sad that a character on screen can murder with impunity but
God forbid someone masterbates. Things have changed a lot since the days of
Pee Week's Playhouse though.

~~~
WorldMaker
It especially bugs me because he was caught in a raid of a _porno theater_.
People act like he was caught in an ordinary movie theater, because the
zeitgeist has no room for details.

~~~
Delmania
That wasn't all that happened though. The arrest happened in July, and then in
September, when he appeared at the Video Music Awards, he was given a standing
ovation. He was making a comeback until 2002, when he was wrongly arrested on
child pornography charges, and then retired to take care of his father.

I think after having his reputation ruined twice was enough to convince him to
lay low.

~~~
Semiapies
"Heard any good jokes, lately?"

Yes, it seemed more like production companies got scared off than the public
had any problem with him.

------
DonHopkins
I appreciate how much Pee Wee Herman was inspired by Pinky Lee. [1]

But Pinky Lee is from a different era, and his kid's show has none of that
wonderful underlying creepiness and double entendres that Paul Rubens brings
to the table. I love how Pinky is totally uncynical, earnest and
straightforward with his manic ADHD stream of consciousness ad-libbed dialog,
like when a little girl sitting in his lap interrupts him to ask about what
happened to his finger:

"You know something, I told you before, I was hungry! I am! I'm starved! I
didn't eat, I didn't eat breakfast or lunch. Yes honey?" "How did you hurt
your finger?" "How'd I hurt my finger? Oh, about four weeks ago a monkey bit
me! We had monkeys on the stage. And he liked me so much, he was jealous of
the other monkey, and he bit me! See that? Oh, but it's getting well now. But
you know, I'm so hungry, and I..." _ring_ "Oh that's the telephone, 'scuse
me!" [2]

He said of his work, "I was the cleanest comedian in burlesque… No violence.
There are no gestures, alluding to the derriere or other parts of the anatomy.
Words like 'lousy' or 'stinker' are absolutely verboten... It’s a happy,
wholesome show."

He was so hyperactive, that when he collapsed on camera due to an infection,
the cameraman and director presumed he'd ad-libbed the fall and it was part of
his act, and the kids kept on cheering and clapping while he was writhing on
the floor. [3] Which The Simpsons parodied in "Krusty Gets Busted".

Of course Pinky Lee could also do zany burlesque for an adult audience, too!
[4]

[1] [https://stylefordorks.com/2015/04/19/pinky-lee-pee-wee-
herma...](https://stylefordorks.com/2015/04/19/pinky-lee-pee-wee-herman-and-
thom-browne/)

[2]
[https://youtu.be/Wj2gq19hebs?t=3m40s](https://youtu.be/Wj2gq19hebs?t=3m40s)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_Lee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_Lee)

[4]
[https://youtu.be/j6e3wI2d1Hs?t=7m42s](https://youtu.be/j6e3wI2d1Hs?t=7m42s)

~~~
Matthewevan23
Hey, Don - Thanks so much for the shout-out! I'm glad this made it to a PeeWee
tribute! Evan - StyleForDorks.com

~~~
DonHopkins
Thank you! That was a great article -- you really nailed what I was trying to
express with his story of how he was bitten by a monkey: "And I have to say,
the times I smile, watching Pinky Lee on stage, are when I’m moved by how
uncynical, unprocessed, and clean it is."

The live performing dogs in that same episode were absolutely mesmerizing, and
it makes me really wish I could see the episode with the monkey that bit him!

Even though he sings and dances his own theme song about himself at the
beginning of every episode, it comes off as totally charming, factually
correct, and not in the least bit narcissistic:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj2gq19hebs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj2gq19hebs)

    
    
        Yoo hoo, it's me,
        My name is Pinky Lee.
        I skip and run with lots of fun
        For every he and she.
        It's plain to see
        That you can tell it's me
        With my checkered hat
        And my checkered coat,
        The funny giggle in my throat
        And my silly dance
        Like a billy goat.
        Put 'em all together,
        Put 'em all together,
        And it's whooooo?
        (Audience): Pinky!

------
donretag
Comeback number 3? 4?

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/06...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/06/19/AR2007061901103.html)

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/peewee-herman-
makes...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/peewee-herman-makes-a-
com_n_388489.html)

[http://www.tvguide.com/news/pee-wee-
comeback-1027469/](http://www.tvguide.com/news/pee-wee-comeback-1027469/)

~~~
heyrhett
Breaking News: The Suit is Back!
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

------
norea-armozel
If he could get Lawrence Fishburne to play Cowboy Curtis one more time that
would be so awesome. God, I feel so old now.

------
tluyben2
As a Dutch guy brought up with BBC and other British humor (and dystopia but
that is another story) I saw the movie when I was 10 or around that and found
it very not funny. Humor has a lot to do with taste and I guess I am not a big
fan of US humor (exceptions aside) and I think it is because of my British
humor upbringing: I wonder if that is the other way around? For instance my
Dutch friends who grew up like me with Fawlty towers, Monty Python and Blakes'
7 (not a comedy but brilliant) hate Friends but love Seinfeld and the ones who
only got Dutch and German and after that American humor love Friends and hate
Seinfeld. No idea if this is just my sample group or if it is far more random
than this.

Edit: remembered a few popular ones from my childhood: space balls and porky
(forgot the complete name) which my friends in the above 2nd category liked
and which made me scratch my brain out of boredom.

~~~
wreford
You like Monty Python but not Spaceballs? I find that pretty weird.

~~~
mchahn
> You like Monty Python but not Spaceballs? I find that pretty weird.

DIfferent tastes for different people. I loved Monty Python from the first
time I heard it on an audio record to the 10 times I watched each episode on
PBS.

However, even as a Mel Brooks fan (Blazing Saddles is an all-time favorite of
mine) I found Spaceballs un-funny and boring.

------
wyldfire
> does not register as dated because Reubens designed him, from the jump, as
> untethered to any one moment in time

I happened to catch a more recent reincarnation (~2011?) of a stage
performance of Pee-Wee on Amazon Prime. There was some entertaining references
to decades past and Konky/Magic Screen were acknowledged to be a little 'out
of date'.

------
of
Don't get me wrong. I am Pee-Wee Herman's biggest fan. But why is this on
hacker news?

~~~
koberstein
Because Paul Reubens hacked his own own reality and made it something
interesting and amazing to behold.

~~~
ry_ry
Urgh. He didn't 'hack his reality' any more than he knitted, cooked or birthed
it.

Stop misappropriating words because they sound cool, there are whole
dictionaries jam packed full of superb words, and its a lazy shame to lean on
tedious zeitgeisty phrases.

~~~
cgriswald
I thought the GP's comment was on fleek!

Seriously, though, his use of the word hack was obviously intended to disarm
the GGP's implied argument. It made me chuckle, and I think was a good word
choice despite it's "tedious zeitgeistiness".

~~~
ry_ry
If that's the case then i am eating metaphorical humble pie after missing the
joke.

Edit.. Yep! On re-reading I suspect you are are right, now I just feel silly!

