Pee-wee’s Big Comeback
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I think after having his reputation ruined twice was enough to convince him to lay low.
Yes, it seemed more like production companies got scared off than the public had any problem with him.
This seems like a very good way to ruin someones life these days. Why kill or disappear someone when you can basically make him socially ostracized?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocv5WdBmSok [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vHb2H0wfY
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...
[2] https://youtu.be/Wj2gq19hebs?t=3m40s
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
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!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.
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.
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'.
"Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions"
This story about Pee-Wee is here for the same reason that one is. From the HN guidelines:
"Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups."
I find "anything that good hackers would find interesting" kind of problematic. Good hackers according to who? Paul Graham? Silicon Valley capitalist culture? Please be more specific.
Also from HN's guidelines: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
So these are open for interpretation.
I know everyone's afraid of the conversations deteriorating to the point that they no longer want to come here, but you can go the other direction with that too. You can regulate it so much that no one wants to come post or read.
I think there's a reasonable balance between the two (where that balance lies is something that many will surely disagree about also -- :-D ).
And, for the record, I could have lived without the Pee Wee Herman story also.
Stories that take us off the beaten track into the wild are the rare earth elements of HN, and we can never get enough of them. There's a strong tendency for everything to homogenize on a small number of hot topics. Those are exciting, but to let them crowd out the quieter, odder material is not how to optimize HN's long-term interestingness. We think it's great to have stories on the front page that defy expectation, and we consciously moderate HN to protect those when we see signs of community interest in them.
Of course people disagree greatly about what counts as interesting, but hey, if one oddball story bores you, another may hit the spot. Keep HN weird.
Performing his stage show in L.A. so that someone from a movie studio will "discover" him again and get psyched about a movie project? That's really really clever.
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.
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".
Edit.. Yep! On re-reading I suspect you are are right, now I just feel silly!