Paul Reubens’s special was full of winking subversion, all framed inside the relative safety of a big sparkly Christmas extravaganza.
, which were at the time a cliché, that fruitcake was bad. Why are we going to make this joke about fruitcake over and over again? Because it’s stupid!There was more direct address in children’s television at the time, especially live-action direct address. But in this context, and given how much queer iconography was happening in the special, the fact that he’s looking directly at his audience is so bizarre. When my 4-year-old watched this with me, she was really trying to process it.
The 1980s political context of Ronald Reagan is important, too, because of the 1980s fetishization of the 1950s, andis doing that too. It’s presenting Annette Funicello and the Del Rubio Triplets and the makeup and the big hair, with a real reverence toward them. You watchthe aesthetic of a type of drag queen? Because in the 1980s that art form is also codifying its language around this imagery.
But it’s also so hard because Reubens never came out, and he’s never talked about his work in this way. As a result, there’s this gap in how we think about the Pee-wee character’s role in this history.There’s another angle of difficult territory here, especially in conjunction with the scandal that then defined Reubens’s career through the ’90s. It’s a children’s show, and he plays himself as a young innocent.
So there is an undercurrent of the tradition of Jewish people making fun of Christian traditional values. This is the silly pageantry you guys do, and we as outsiders have gotten to witness it. It’s so silly. This is what you guys look like!It’s so confident. There is no moment in this special where anyone flinches. And we see it as a subversion of a kind of Reaganism Americana, but it’s not really a subversion of the Del Rubio sisters. The k.d.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Pee-wee Herman’ Star Paul Reubens Remembered By Hollywood: ‘Paul Was Such a Genius’Jimmy Kimmel, Natasha Lyonne, and more paid their respects on social media.
Read more »
Jake Paul Addresses Past Feud With Brother Logan Paul (Exclusive)'We got sucked into the Los Angeles madness and it got the better of us, and we had to realize, like, look, we're brothers at the end of the day.'
Read more »
'Riverdale' Season 7 Is Only Worth Watching for This CoupleThis romance is the one thing 'Riverdale' Season 7 is getting right.
Read more »
Utah Highway Patrol troopers are watching for distracted and impaired drivers this summerThe Utah Highway Patrol makes one out of every three DUI arrests in Utah and, in the summer months, troopers have to be extra vigilant.
Read more »
5 things we're watching on Monday's big FEC deadlineWe're about to learn more about the shadowy underpinnings of the GOP primary.
Read more »
Recommendations: 5 TV Shows Like Succession Worth Watching if You Miss the Roy FamilySuccession has been cemented as one of the best in recent memory. Let's take a look at some similar series that could scratch the same itch.
Read more »