Actor Paul Reubens, best known as Pee-wee Herman, succumbs to cancer at age 70.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/paul-reubens-dead-pee-wee-herman-1235683504/

BMTI. I always loved Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  :\'(

I never knew he was sick.

Actor Paul Reubens, best known as Pee-wee Herman, succumbs to cancer at age 70.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/paul-reubens-dead-pee-wee-herman-1235683504/

I always watched his morning TV show during The 1980's, RIP Pee Wee Herman. :\'(

I was just watching him play a dope dealer in the movie Blow last night.  :\'(

I am probably one of the few people on this planet that HATED Pee Wee. But, he was a good actor and did many things other than Pee Wee. It is sad that ANYONE has to fight cancer.


Cat

I am probably one of the few people on this planet that HATED Pee Wee. But, he was a good actor and did many things other than Pee Wee. It is sad that ANYONE has to fight cancer.


Cat


I also had no fascination with the Pee Wee character. I assume there was some attempt at social satire in there, but I was hard pressed to see it.

R.I.P. Pee-Wee. Yeah, he may have ruined his reputation with the movie theater incident, but that's not something I'd wish on anyone. I didn't even know he was battling cancer.

I am probably one of the few people on this planet that HATED Pee Wee. But, he was a good actor and did many things other than Pee Wee. It is sad that ANYONE has to fight cancer.


Cat

Indeed it is. RiP to Paul :\'(

Sorry to hear this    :\'(  :\'(  :\'(

R.I.P. Paul Reubens

BMTI. I always loved Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  :\'(

I never knew he was sick.


I don't think any of us knew that he was sick.  Maybe he wanted to keep his sickness to himself.

I am probably one of the few people on this planet that HATED Pee Wee. But, he was a good actor and did many things other than Pee Wee. It is sad that ANYONE has to fight cancer.


Cat


You never watched Pee Wee's Playhouse?

You never watched Pee Wee's Playhouse?


Nope. Couldn't stomach it.


Cat

Although Pee Wee wasn't really my thing, there is a very interesting tribute in the Washington Post that ties into the whole "nostalgia" thing and the way it is discussed here on InThe00s. And for those of you who have an interest of sorts in the 1980s, but weren't born, this article really nails what was going on, and the Pee Wee character's place in it.

As Pee-wee Herman, Paul Reubens showed us it was okay to be weird
The actor, who died Sunday, rose to fame with a delightfully deranged twist on Peter Pan, presaging our obsession with nostalgia and childhood fun

www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/07/31/pee-wee-herman-paul-reubens-remembered-appreciation/

Excerpts:

Out of the smoggy, lingering weight of the late 1970s, at a time when boomer culture was overly obsessed with stick-it-to-the-man humor (the Blues Brothers, “Animal House,” George Carlin, Richard Pryor), appeared Pee-wee Herman, an outré and even disturbing encounter at first, conceived as a recurring character in a Los Angeles improv troupe: He was a man-child in a two-sizes-too-small church suit and red bow tie, his hair buzzed barbershop-short in precisely the way an entire generation had devoted so much energy rebelling against. Makeup hid Pee-wee’s five o’clock shadow; cherry lipstick defined his devilish smile. When Pee-wee wasn’t barking out his fake laugh (ha-ha!), he was shouting — about playthings, about dinosaurs, about bathroom hygiene. Was he 9? Was he 30? It never mattered.

Pee-wee Herman and Ronald Reagan’s presidency emerged at roughly the same time, and both seemed to intuit the long, deep, inescapable stretch of nostalgia that would define America’s cultural future. For Reagan, whose heavy makeup also tended to blushing cheeks and boyish insouciance, it was all about returning to core values while cutting taxes and government spending — fill-’er-up service with a gee-whiz smile.

Pee-wee similarly leaped out of bed in his jammies to greet the sunshine of Morning in America (bicycles whizzing past, mailmen and cowboys waving to pretty ladies in bouffant splendor), but those of us who looked close enough saw the intentional, darker subtext in Pee-wee’s make-believe world. It was a deranged yet delightfully effective twist on Peter Pan.

Reubens proved many times over that he could play just about any comedic role, but Pee-wee was his lifelong creation, and a dear friend to fans who understood the character as both optimist and cynic. As Pee-wee, Reubens celebrated regression as an antidote to depression; he lived deliberately in a world no one might have imagined, a modern phenomenon who is nevertheless locked in a past that no one could retrieve.

He treated nostalgia, with its boomer-era toys and accoutrements and playground insults (“I know you are, but what am I?”) as a delightful yet cockamamie realm, doing the Hula-Hoop while seeming to anticipate Armageddon’s mushroom cloud in the near distance. Setting aside Prince and Madonna (and Reagan), it’s possible Pee-wee Herman was the most 1980s thing about the 1980s.

One other very interesting point. In the comments section of the Washington Post article I excerpted above, somebody made this very perceptive observation:

It's insane to me that in the 1990s Paul Reubens was branded as a sexual deviant while Bill Cosby was held up as a wholesome role model. And it's even more disturbing that too many people still hold those opinions. Reubens faced more consequences for his victimless misdemeanor than so many men of his generation and older who committed serious crimes against women.

I remember being disappointed in him when he was caught jacking off in a porno theater.  >:(  It did hurt my heart a little to hear about someone I so admired pleading no contest to an indecent exposure charge.  I was only 14 at the time so it was a disappinting thing to hear about. >:(

Nope. Couldn't stomach it.


Cat

I know, not many people could stomach him, I thought he was a bit of a silly cornball, I just need some funny comedy in my life.

I know, not many people could stomach him, I thought he was a bit of a silly cornball, I just need some funny comedy in my life.


My brother and I loved Pee Wee.  My grandmother...not so much.

I was kinda neutral about him myself. I could tolerate him, but only to a certain degree.

I liked his Playhouse show when I was a kid, and the Pee-Wee's Big Adventure film.

I am probably one of the few people on this planet that HATED Pee Wee. But, he was a good actor and did many things other than Pee Wee.

Agreed, Cat. Still, this weekend I'll be watching Disney's Flight Of The Navigator in his honor. Max the robot had to be my favorite of his roles.

https://puppet.fandom.com/wiki/Max_(Flight_of_the_Navigator)?file=Maxflightofthenavigator.jpg

Your Pal,
Doc
:\'(

My brother and I loved Pee Wee.  My grandmother...not so much.


His character is not for everyone.

His character is not for everyone.
I have only heard of him, never seen his act , etc.

I have only heard of him, never seen his act , etc.


His Pee Wee's Playhouse is for free on YouTube to watch.

I have only heard of him, never seen his act , etc.


Have you ever seen the movie Blow? ???

Pee Wee played a serious part in that flick.

Very sad.......