Non Threatening Boys*: Unpacking My Pee-Wee Herman Crush
Words: Hatti Rex
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All the baddies have had a crush on Pee-Wee Herman at some point in their lives and if you haven't, that’s fine but I urge you to take a second look. While recently watching HBO’s newly released Pee-Wee As Himself documentary, profiling the late comedian Paul Reubens, my childhood crush was reaffirmed as photo after photo of a young, hot, floppy-haired, 6-foot-tall Reubens flashed across my laptop screen. His semi-innocent clown-like persona is clearly not usually pegged as heart-throb material but the TikTok fan edits, agree and even ex-Playboy icon and former Polyester cover star Holly Madison has shared these same feelings.
Pee-Wee was an amalgamation of bad renditions of classic comedy tropes combined with past in-jokes with Reubens’ former lover and artist Guy Brown, who he lived with in Echo Park shortly after they met at CalArts (where he had once set up a kissing booth, imagine…). He first tested out the character whilst working with LA improv group The Groundlings in the early 80s (beloved goth queen Elvira was amongst his peers). It takes someone with true charisma and quick wit to steal a scene with a single facial expression or make an audience laugh with a series of lacklustre props, nobody else could’ve pulled it off…