Pee-Wee’s Christmas (is) special  

By Tavi Mass-Despain

Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse has been a part of my family's Christmas tradition as far back as I can remember. Even now despite all of my immediate family being far above the targeted demographic age wise, it's just that good. I would even go as far as to argue it’s only gotten better with age, especially with the power of hindsight providing the ability to appreciate the show it's a part of, and the people who made it.

I’ve grown to appreciate the episode more as I've gotten older, not just for my nostalgia, but how earnest Pee-Wee’s playhouse is as a production. Considering that Pee-Wee was the brain-child of Paul Reubens, who wanted to use Pee-Wee as a vice for diversity, that it's not only okay to be different, but that it only makes you more special to stand out in a crowd. The Christmas special alone has several actors of several different backgrounds and ethnicities, including a lot of queer ones such as Little Richard, Grace Jones, and K.D. Lang to name a few. Not to mention Paul Reubens himself was gay, which is reflected in Pee-Wee’s effeminacy, and the androgyny of characters like Jambi. Several other actors were also activists during the AIDS/HIV epidemic, and the Civil Rights Movement.

I say all this as an extended way of backing my appreciation of Pee-Wee’s Christmas special. not just for making me laugh every single year of my life, but also as a queer person with a complex identity. I have an endless amount of respect for Paul Reuben’s direction in challenging the status quo, especially in 1988. This is what makes Pee-Wee’s Christmas special like the media equivalent of comfort food to me. that I can appreciate the work that went into making the episode and the show as a whole a diverse piece of art, and feel that it doesn’t exclude I, or the history of my family which predated I. This is what cements this piece of media into our tradition, that one's differences aren’t at the exclusion of one another, but that our differences only unite us more if we are to acknowledge the others' individual experiences are irreplaceable, and finite. Also the literal Jewish dinosaurs are just really funny.