I remember first seeing Pee Wee Herman on an HBO special called the Pee Wee Herman Show sometime around 1982. The character was obviously bizarre, but endearing as well. The show, a stage play comedian Paul Reubens had developed with some up-and-coming actors like Phil Hartman, was a goof on old Saturday morning children’s programs. It was fun, nostalgic, and slightly naughty. I loved it.
Is Simone a dude in drag? I think so.
The character was fairly unforgettable, and his growing popularity led to a feature film in 1985 which was directed by then-newcomer Tim Burton. The film, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and its sequel, Big Top Pee Wee, were uneven films, but they had some really memorable moments. The first one in particular is highly quotable (“I’m a loner, Dottie … a rebel”), but I always got this creepy, homolicious vibe coming off of it – especially the scene where Pee Wee dresses like a woman and Mickey looks him over, or Simone the waitress, who looks like a dude in drag. Of course, Pee Wee’s not the most masculine guy in the room, but when he’s dancing in front of a group of bikers while pointing at his butt, I start to wonder what the fuck I’m watching.
Then Reubens decided to throw it all away jacking off in a porn theater. Well, he denies jacking off, but what the hell was he doing there, anyway??
So Pee Wee went away for fifteen years, and the world moved on. But Reubens, who found occasional work here and there during that time period, never let the character go. So now, almost twenty years later, Reubens has decided to bring Pee Wee back with a series of appearances, all of which are leading to a possible movie.
I have no idea how anyone comes up with something this brilliant. What insane criminal genius thought that a mash-up of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Michael Jackson’s Rockin’ Robin would sound this good??
Twenty nine years ago today, music television was born in the form of MTV. Of course, music television died a decade later, replaced by a zombie version of it also known as MTV that only plays shitty reality shows.
But we celebrate that naive and exciting moment when pop culture took a radical left turn into bad fashion, weird electronic sounds, and experimental video forms. Here is how it all began:
Prophetic, eh?
Those first few years of MTV were exciting. (more…)
One of the first acts by Michael Jackson to indicate that he was slowly going insane was when he adopted a little baby chimpanzee. Michael named him Bubbles, which right away should have alerted PETA to animal abuse. Bubbles became almost as famous as Jackson himself, but in a kind of Lindsay Lohan way.
In 2004, Jackson had to give up Bubbles because the monkey was cuter and getting all the boys. So Jackson did what any loving owner of a best friend would do – he locked Bubbles in a cage somewhere. I’m sure Bubbles is much happier being with other monkeys, where he no longer has to stare at Michael’s nose hole.
Now that we have arrived at the one year anniversary of Michael’s death (about which Bubbles had no comment), LaToya Jackson has decided to use the opportunity to flaunt her weirdness. LaToya went to visit Bubbles in his cage for an investigative journalistic piece on Animal Planet entitled “Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story.” What follows is bizarre, like most things this stupid famewhore has ever done:
It’s hard to believe that the vagina which produced talented stars like Michael or Janet could also quief out LaToya or Tito. I think they should set Bubbles free and make LaToya take his place in the monkey cage. Now there’s a reality show I can get behind!
Michael Jackson has been dead for over six months now. His movie has come and gone. Hell, even the 35% of his body made of actual human flesh has disintegrated by now. Yet we’re still being deluged with Jackson-related garbage.
Not only are the money-hungry producers of Jackson’s This Is It pushing for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for their incomplete, hastily-edited rehearsal footage – possibly the worst Best Picture nominee ever conceived, but they have hired Spike “I hate the white man” Lee to direct a music video for the title song.
I really don’t care if you’re the biggest Michael Jackson fan alive, you must admit that this song sucks. It’s meaningless, with a limp vocal performance and even worse music. It’s not a fitting tribute to the man at all.
The video does a better job of saluting Jackson through pictures and video, with almost all of it coming from the pre-freak years. After the jump you can witness this newest Jackson-related cash grab: (more…)
