This just became popular on YouTube:
I like two of the comments:
“The funniest part is that Pee-Wee is the least cringe of all of them.”
“Pee Wee is not the only one acting. But he was the only who knew that he was acting.”
Sigh. Add hot pants to the list of things that weren’t really as awesome as I remembered.
In the Dating Game clip above, at around 7:25 Pee-wee says “I might not be old enough to drink…” which does seem to make it pretty clear that he’s supposed to be an actual child. Of course if Pee-wee is an actual child, what the heck is he doing on a game show trying to get a date with an adult woman?
Pee-wee’s kind of a quantum state, simultaneously child-child, Jerry Lewis-esque man-child and adult-adult but kid-friendly Pinky Lee. I was just watching the HBO special from 1981 and it’s populated by other adults playing children, like Hammy, but also adults playing adults that are essentially peers, like Miss Yvonne, and actual adult-adults like Cap’n Carl. Even in the movie, characters like Francis and Dottie are quasi-adult children. Pee-wee owns his own house and has adult responsibilities, not like a latchkey Pippi Longstocking waiting for father to come back from the sea, but in a fantasy context.
I just figure you have to accept the premise of Pee-wee without thinking about it too hard, like Jerry Lewis or Joe Besser’s Stinky from Abbott and Costello.
I also came across this from the series. The series had actual children like the Playhouse gang (featuring Natasha Lyonne) and the adults were actually adults but peers of Pee-wee.
Is there a trick to embedding video? I can’t seem to do it.
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Pee-Wee and Mr. Bean are similar. Both are men, but are childlike. The main difference being that Mr. Bean is self-centered like a child can be, while Pee-Wee is childlike in very different, kinder ways.
I mean Pee-Wee after he cleaned up the character to make him less dirty. I saw the VHS version of his original stage show and it was a lot different.
I liked when Jambi got the hands he’d ordered.