Story by Jon Stalnaker
AKA The Studebaker Dude
Also known as Pee Wee Herman, it’s all over the news that Paul Reubens lost his six-year battle with cancer. He successfully kept his illness from the media. One of the things that surprised me the most was that he was 70 years old. I shouldn’t be that shocked as I have been watching this funny man for over 4 decades. I used to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse on TV with my children who are now grown up. My middle son Stephen, called me years ago when he was in his early 20s and told me “I know now why you laughed so hard while we watched Pee Wee’s Playhouse together.” That was the incredible part of Paul Reubens’ brilliance as a comedian; He got away with humor that was suitable for children, with just enough double entendre to amuse the adult audience without saying anything inappropriate in front of the children. He was a master at that, as proven by the phone call I received from my son who realized it after watching it again as a grown-up.
Paul Reubens was careful not to mix his persona with Pee Wee as you never saw him out of character when he was dressed up as Pee Wee. He was a very good actor as I’ve seen him in many other roles and his comedy is amazing. One of my favorite roles he played was on the TV show Murphy Brown. He was a nephew of the head of the news magazine. He managed to get a job at the station through nepotism and his character was brilliant. He worked as the secretary to Murphy Brown and was a total sycophant. One of only three of her secretaries to measure up to her standards. I wasn’t a big watcher of Murphy Brown but the episodes with Paul Reubens were memorable. He also appeared in other TV shows such as 30 Rock, Portlandia, and The Blacklist to name a few. I remember watching the movie, Flight of the Navigator, about a young boy that went missing for 8 years in an alien spacecraft. The ship had a human-voiced computer system named MAX, similar to HAL in 2001 a Space Odyssey. I was watching it with my children when I recognized who the voice of MAX was. It was clearly Paul Reubens.
My children and I were big fans of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and watched it regularly. He had great actors in silly roles in his show. Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis, S. Epatha Merkerson was Reba the mail lady. Saturday Night Live comic genius Phil Hartman played the role of Captain Carl. That show started out as an adult comic play but morphed well into a children’s show with an adult twist to please the parents that were watching with their children. One Christmas, we bought our 3 boys Pee Wee Herman pajamas. They looked adorable in their little grey suit pajamas with the red bowties. They also got plenty of Pee Wee merchandise. Pee Wee was a larger-than-life character that made being a bit odd fashionable. I’ve been looking at his work on Facebook and YouTube since the news broke about his passing. He was one of a kind for sure.
We also loved his first movie, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. We watched that movie so often that I could recite the entire script by memory. Many of the lines in that movie are still etched in my vocabulary. To this day, it remains in the top 5 of my favorite all-time movies. I saw a lot of myself in the Pee Wee character. A little bit naughty, a tad sarcastic, and never taking myself too seriously. I was often frowned upon by my fellow managers at the post office for not being serious enough. That was fine with me as the worst thing you could call me was a fuddy-duddy. If you can’t enjoy yourself and still get the job done, you’re doing it all wrong. Rest in Peace Paul Reubens. Thank you for sharing your amazing talent and making this world just a little bit more tolerable. Thanks for the memories and the catchphrases you have burned into my brain. It’s wonderful that your best work will live on in film, on television, and on the Internet. I will see you again there often, as you will forever make me laugh.
