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CRAP! I hate it when a link on Twitter leads to bad news but those bastards behind Social Media got us! Now to wait for the\u00a0Fresh Air<\/em> episode of when he was a guest.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul was a very talented Comedian and I’d put him in the same company as Steve Martin in that he grabbed the spotlight via a stage persona but could hold his own playing other roles which kept him in the public’s mind. Obviously, Martin has a larger body of work so you can hold back the comments saying I’m full of baloney.<\/span><\/p>\n I first saw him on the annual HBO special showcasing new comedians when Carl Reiner was the host. Paul definitely stood out with Pee-wee Herman, a combination of prop comic and goofy personality with a little audience participation. I probably caught him with his periodic appearances on David Letterman’s NBC show and I figure MTV. Then Pee-wee’s Big Adventure<\/em> came out late in 1985. My brother Brian saw it immediately and told me it was actually funny for its duration; I probably feared it would suck since a 10-minute skit doesn’t equal a movie, what ex-SNL<\/em> alumni still don’t understand. Thanks to my exile to North Dakota, a mall theater in Dickinson was showing\u00a0Adventure<\/em> and I loved it. Danny Elfman doing the music was an added bonus; now we know Elfman’s a Louis CK-level piece of shit.<\/span><\/p>\n Pee-wee-mania followed, namely his Saturday-morning show Pee-wee’s Playhouse<\/em>. I was in college by the time it aired. I would catch when I could. I did like his guest spot on\u00a0SNL<\/em> as its legacy was the debut of Jon Lovitz’s Tommy Flanagan character (the serial liar). I bet Paul felt vindication too. He auditioned for the frequently unfunny show and was rejected. It’s a fortunate thing because if he succeeded, he would’ve faced the long, hard climb back to relevance along with the others from the infamous 1980-81 cast: Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Charlie Rocket and Laurie Metcalf. It’s a bummer his second movie Big Top Pee-wee <\/em>flopped. I bet it was a labor of love given his upbringing in Sarasota, FL, where the traveling circuses hunker down for the winter.<\/span><\/p>\n Around these years (1985-1992) was when I recognized him in past appearances as some version of Pee-wee. The annoying arcade operator in Midnight Madness<\/em> (also starring an unknown Michael J. Fox);\u00a0The Blues Brothers<\/em>; two Cheech & Chong flicks; <\/span>Mork & Mindy<\/i>; Faerie Tale Theatre\u00a0<\/em>(Pinocchio!); and Steve Martin’s special mocking commercials.<\/p>\n It came to an immediate halt in the Summer of 1991 and we all know what happened. I bet we may remember a couple of the lazy jokes. CBS cancelled Playhouse<\/em> and all the toys got cleared from the shelves; they’re worth a fortune now. Everybody predicted Paul’s demise. Instead, Paul bravely doubled-down on his public humiliation at an MTV award show that Fall by asking a supportive audience chanting his name, “Heard any good jokes lately?”<\/p>\n Pee-wee was then retired after a stupid PSA about the dangers of crack, one of the terms of his probation. Paul wouldn’t bring him back at length until a Netflix special or he’d just do a cameo as per a parody of The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>. He proved he was more than Pee-wee Herman in other hits: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Murphy Brown, Ally McBeal, Everyone Loves Raymond\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Matilda<\/em>. A pair of his best performances were in\u00a0Mystery Men<\/em>, I love him as the smelly hero known as the Spleen; and\u00a0Blow<\/em>, a serious movie with him as Johnny Depp’s co-hort in making cocaine big in the US (I need to see this).<\/p>\n For me personally, he will live on in two ways. The first is what a fantastic and memorable voice actor he also was. Before he was no longer “family friendly,” he provided the voice of RX-24, the robot pilot on Disney’s\u00a0Star Tours<\/em> ride and he reprised the role on\u00a0Rebels<\/em>! Paul then appeared as these shows:\u00a0Hercules, Rugrats, Teacher’s Pet, Tripping the Rift, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Tron: Uprising, Chowder, Adventure Time, Robot Chicken, Sanjay and Craig, Phineas and Ferb, Tigtone<\/em> and\u00a0American Dad<\/em>. Paul was the greatest choice as Bat-Mite in\u00a0Batman: The Brave and The Bold<\/em> and I’m holding back tears since one of his last performances was this year’s season finale of\u00a0Bob’s Burgers<\/em> with him as the masseuse in training, Pat, for Linda’s Mother’s Day surprise.<\/p>\n The second dates back to seeing\u00a0Pee-wee’s Big Adventure<\/em> on the VCR with my high school buds Mike and Jon. It was out on VHS by the Spring of 1986. I cajoled them into renting it. When it got to the scene of Josh Brolin and Morgan Fairchild playing Pee-wee and Dottie during the movie within the movie, we had to pause for five minutes after Brolin said, “I know you are, but what am I?” Jon and I couldn’t stop laughing. Mike was bewildered. I should ask Mike if he remembers this.<\/p>\n Farewell Paul! Thank you for all you did. You made at least a billion people laugh and you did your part to make the world a better, happier place while you were living your dream. I’m going to miss you because you made my jaded teen years, not so jaded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CRAP! I hate it when a link on Twitter leads to bad news but those bastards behind Social Media got us! Now to wait for the\u00a0Fresh Air episode of when he was a guest. Paul was a very talented Comedian … Continue reading