Farewell Paul Reubens

I don’t have much to add to the outpouring of grief and memories at the loss of the one and only Paul Reubens, Pee-Wee Herman.

But I will say that I remember very well the times I’ve laughed the hardest in my wife.

There are two of them, and one is NSFW (I was in my twenties) and has nothing to do with movies.

But the other one is upon seeing Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure when it came out in July 1985, and the opening “breakfast machine”:

I had just turned 11 and I remember laughing so hard, it was physically painful. I could not breathe!

My brother and I had seen the ads for the film, and we wanted to dance like Pee-Wee:

I just remember being utterly captivated by the character, his two different voices, the insane humor and snappy comebacks.

It was a joy to show the film to my own kids, when they were the right age.

Bless you, Pee-Wee Herman.

And what the hell? Here he is in 1979 on The Dating Game:

It’s 2023 and everything is on the Internet!