“He’s a walking contradiction….partly truth and partly fiction…”
When Kris Kristofferson sang those lyrics, he probably did not expect someone to apply them to Pee-Wee Herman. Yet, that is exactly what I am about to do. Just go with me on this. I have always found Pee-Wee a compelling character because of how indefinable he is. Most comedy characters have a simple “hook” that can be explained in five seconds. The Coneheads are aliens with cone-shaped heads. Austin Powers is a horny ’60s spy living in the ’90s. Pee-Wee is not that simple. He contains multitudes. He somehow manages to be both a child in a man’s body and a man acting like a child. He creates chaos wherever he goes while living in a world that’s just as crazy as he is. Pee-Wee Herman cannot be explained. He can only be experienced.
Those contradictions are exactly what has helped Paul Reubens’ most famous creation survive through a rather tumultuous three decades, which included two nearly career-killing sex scandals, a disastrously received movie, and several years of inactivity. Yet, Pee-Wee endures due to the width and size of his audience. He appeals to both adults and to children, by engaging in all sorts of childlike joyful silliness while also possessing a darker, naughtier streak that stays mostly under the surface. Therefore, when the kids grow up, they can see what they could not see before and stay connected to Pee-Wee throughout their entire lives. That’s why Pee-Wee does not feel tied to any particular decade and also why nobody is clamoring for the return of Raymond J. Johnson, Jr. or Toonces the Driving Cat. Pee-Wee Herman is timeless.
All of which leads us to Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, the first film to feature the character since Big Top Pee-Wee in 1988. This new film, directed by the anarchic experimental comedian John Lee, follows Pee-Wee on a surreal road trip through America on his way to New York City. The reason for the trip? Well, he is trying to get to his best friend Joe Manganiello‘s birthday party. Yes, you read that right, the real Joe Manganiello is playing himself and he does so hilariously by poking fun at his macho sex symbol image.
Since this is a Pee-Wee movie, the plot hardly matters. It’s simply an excuse for Pee-Wee to bounce from one weird scene to the next. He gets taken hostage by a group of bank robbers, falls in with a group of competitive hairstylists, becomes friends with a traveling novelty item salesman, introduces an Amish community to the wonders of balloons, and so on. Each scene feels more like a short sketch that lasts about two minutes or less, which keeps the story moving at a fast and funny pace. Director Lee demonstrates quite a bit of comedic chutzpah, by often letting scenes develop into grandly absurd set pieces that very few other filmmakers would attempt. In one moment, for example, Lee holds on a shot of Pee-Wee doing an action that I do not want to spoil for three, straight, unbroken minutes. It goes from being stupidly funny to annoying to annoyingly funny to finally absolutely hilarious due to the audacity of the pure silliness. Lee has pulled these sorts of stunts before, mostly in his work with the group PFFR and their fantastically surreal kids-show parody Wonder Showzen. There has not been such an ideal match for the Reubens sensibility since Tim Burton.
Yet, the craziness all stays grounded in Reubens’ performance as Pee-Wee, which I have always considered a masterful piece of comic acting. It is supremely difficult to make such a weird character feel like a recognizable person that the audience can relate to. Reubens has always excelled at showing how Pee-Wee has to deal with the same foibles and conundrums that all humans experience. The difference is that every one of his actions are dictated by his emotions and impulses. There is no internal life for this man. He does absolutely everything that he feels like doing and he does it in a way that elevates the idea of acting like a child into an artform. Pee-Wee is not a kid trapped in an adult’s body or the other way around. He is who we all would be if we did not have to squelch our impulses to be silly and uncivilized.
That, to me, is what keeps Pee-Wee such an enduring American icon. He taps into our fundamentally human need for goofiness. It is a need that has kept us going through all of history. Without at least a little silliness, life would not be worth living. Reubens not only knows this, but he’s made it his life motto. Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday is his latest chance to spread that message to a newer and wider audience.
Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday is streaming exclusively on Netflix.
