Okay, just for a moment let's set aside the fact that Pee Wee Herman doing a serious commercial about using crack is really, really (unintentionally) funny, and focus on just how logical it was to use that character in the first place.
One assumes this commercial was made when Pee Wee's Playhouse was on the air, which means his main audience was grade school children and not so much the older hipsters who knew the more "adult" Pee Wee character Paul Reubens created while with the Groundlings.
So, were there a lot of second graders doing crack back then? Was I the only kid in elementary school who stuck strictly to inhaling gasoline fumes and drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon? Seriously, people.
Also, I think the PSA would have been much more effective if "crack" was the secret word of the day and the ad ended with Pee Wee and all his puppet pals screaming and jumping up and down. You got to know how to reach kids, that's all I'm saying.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-02-2007 @ 12:40PM
Richard Ott said...
My feelings seeing this commercial are, if Paul Ruebins
would've just said to the movie theater manager, "Hi,
my name is Paul Ruebins. I'm here to see this movie, so
don't tell anybody I play Pee-Wee Herman on the show.",
instead of sneaking in to watch the movie, maybe he
would've never been caught, and Pee-Wee's Playhouse
would've remained on the air after 1990. It also would've
helped for him to remember which commercial he was
doing at that time, if this was before the incident that
got Pee-Wee's Playhouse cancelled on CBS.
Reply
6-02-2007 @ 5:35PM
LC said...
I think Reuben's troubles were more a result of his playing tug of war with cyclops in the theater than it was from sneaking into it.
The producers of the ad were fortunate he had his own crack to use for the shoot.
Reply
6-03-2007 @ 1:51AM
Ben said...
where did he get that crack from?
Reply
6-04-2007 @ 2:06PM
Jonathan Myers said...
2 things - 1 - Yeah, that rock will kill you. Is he holding up a boulder of crack???
and 2. As funny as this is, it doesn't even scratch the celeb PSA surface! If you REALLY want a laugh, check out "Mr. T- Be Somebody, or Be Somebody's Fool." Hearing T talk about his father's "bootses" or the great track "Treat Yo Momma Right" is worth the price of admission!
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