He was an oddball, but he was my kind of odd and I will miss him.

The world seems strangely less friendly without him

TO this day, my kids don't pass a truck without checking for Large Marge!

Man, that Large Marge scene scared the bejesus out of me as a kid.

Me too! Still think about it decades later.

> Pee-wee Herman has died

Title should be updated. His name is Paul Reubens. Pee-Wee Herman was a character he played.

I would bet most people won't have any idea who that is. I would maybe do something like "Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens has died"

Sorry, forgot to add a concrete suggestion. Yes, the title should mention both his real name and the character name that he is most famous for.

Or like the title of the linked-to page: "Paul Reubens, Pee-wee Herman Actor, Dies at 70 After Private Bout of Cancer".

Agreed, I'll always know him as The Spleen

The voice of Max:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Navigator

"The Hamburger Dude" from Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams was my first exposure to Paul Reubens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff-DqTerrnw

RIP Paul

Same, literally for 42 years I have been using “I bid you shalom” and “Unhand me!” thanks to the man.

Agreed!

For those wanting more, here's the character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee-wee_Herman

And here's the actor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Reubens

Meka Leka Hi Meka Hiney Ho

Pee-wee: Come on, Dottie. Let's go.

Dottie: Let's go? Don't you wanna see the rest of the movie?

Pee-wee: I don't have to see it, Dottie. I lived it.

Funny enough I've had the "Connect the Dots" song earbugging me for weeks

Now it can be PeeWee’s ghost who gives Large Marge a ride.

RIP Paul, thanks for all the laughs!

One of my favorite Pee Wee scenes is the "Amish balloon" scene from his 2016 Netflix movie Pee Wee's Big Holiday. Like Pee Wee, it is funny, absurd, annoying, unique, and endearing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKHgpnylc8

Delightful

In tears laughing. I skipped this movie but I'll be watching it tonight.

Wow this actor's Wikipedia page is something. It makes me wonder what happens to all those digital archivist folks. There's a bunch of them who indiscriminately collect data and put it on hard disks. Inevitably there's going to be stuff there that's not palatable. I wonder what happens if they're ever discovered.

Once someone is dead, I don't think slander/libel laws apply, if that's what you're getting at.

You can't cancel the dead.

It's almost routine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Confederate_monumen...

This made me smile. I'm pretty sure Paul Reubens never fought to maintain a slave state.

Such a typical false equivalency. Never change HN :)

It's worth noting he (Paul Reubens) pled guilty to an obscenity charge having had another charge of child pornography dismissed by a judge (ie wasn't found guilty, judge agreed to dismiss the charge in a plea bargain). Both charges, including the one he pled guilty to, were related to child pornography and it sounds like a deal was done in an era where famous people could get away with more than they should have. BUT he was required to sign on to the sex offenders register.

I have no idea why this news is on HN but if Rubens is going to be memorialized lets make sure that this horrible aspect of his personality isn't glossed over - especially as he sought out to be a children's entertainer.

https://www.today.com/popculture/paul-reubens-pleads-guilty-...

Which is why it was mentioned in the article.

It's also entirely possible you missed the whole story.

I'm not sure it was a famous people thing - the dismissed charge was a misdemeanor. That seems like something in-scope for many deals with non-famous people.

It was a huge story back in the day. Huge. He didn't get away with anything.

My memory is fuzzy but I believe he was a collector of nude art. Nude children were found in some boxes of this art. But there were boxes and boxes, to the point he didn't know what he had and hadn't looked at most of it.

It's also worth noting that people change, and it was nearly 20 years ago.

Also: if the prosecution had a solid child pornography case they wouldn't have plead it out to obscenity with a $100 fine.

Also: the prosecution had to be okay with the obscenity charge getting expunged.

So AFAICT, he served his pennance for the crime and it was expunged from his record.

If the courts feel like the criminal record should be expunged, perhaps a better question is why don't you?

My favorite Pee-wee trivia which may be apocryphal is that Pee-wee's Big Adventure was an adaptation of Ladri di Biciclette.

The story I heard was that Rubens was originally developing a script around Pee-Wee as a Pollyanna type character. He was walking across the studio backlot and noticed a lot of people use bicycles to get around the lot. He requested his own bike, and the studio gave him an old (40s?) Schwinn which he just fell in love with. He realized Pee-Wee would too, and it became the MacGuffin for a new script.

The original Pollyanna script was eventually developed into the sequel Big Top Pee-Wee.

"You don't wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel."

Almost 40 years later, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is still one of my favorite movies.

Give it another watch. I did recently and was surprised how funny it still is. It's rather timeless, mostly innocent, absurdist humor that still makes me laugh.

I watched it w/ my toddlers after the netflix movie came out. The new one wasn't too memorable for me, but Big Adventure and Big Top Peewee still hold up after 30 years.

One role people don't know him much for that I'm sure you've heard was the voice of the pilot droid in both incarnations of the Star Wars - Star Tours ride in Disney parks around the world.

He reprised the role in an episode of Star Wars Rebels later, and the droid is now a DJ in the Galaxy's Edge cantina.

So wait, did we ever figure out what the Secret Word actually was??

Finally found out who he is. I knew him from: https://wiki.animutationportal.com/Hyakugojyuuichi

He made my childhood worth living right. https://youtu.be/y8dHJrEig5k