The Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special

As a kid, I was obsessed with Pee-Wee's Playhouse. I preferred it to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, which gave me nightmares with its visions of frolicking demons, road-tripping serial killers, and Large Marge. I never missed an episode on Saturday mornings and meticulously recorded each one on a VHS tape - which makes it strange that I never saw The Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special until recently. And man oh man, was I missing out. It takes everything that made the Playhouse insane, cranks it up, and rips off the knob.

Pee-Wee Herman can trace his origins back to the Groundlings, where a young Paul Reubens and a colleague named Phil Hartman created what was ostensibly a stage show for kids, but was filled with subversive and adult humor. The show was eventually filmed for an HBO special, which ironically morphed into an actual kids' show featuring a young Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis, Law & Order's S. Epatha Merkerson as Mail Lady Reba, and Lynne Marie Stewart as Miss Yvonne, who would go on to play Charlie's Mom on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The first thing that you notice as an adult watching The Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special is that it not only shares the John Waters-esque camp sensibilities of the show, but it is loaded with gay icons. Guests include Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Grace Jones, k.d. lang, Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers, Cher, Little Richard, Charo, and the elderly, ukulele playing Del Rubio Triplets (not to mention an opening number by a chorus line of hunky Marines). Reubens' orientation has always been mysterious - he has been attached to adult film star Brooke Ashley and actress Debi Mazar, but also has an enormous collection of vintage gay erotica which got him roped into the Jeffrey Jones child pornography investigation in 2001.

The plot of the special revolves around Pee-Wee being a spoiled, present-obsessed brat who demands extra wishes from Jambi and turns an arts and crafts segment with Frankie and Annette into sadistic slave labor. Along the way he participates in some typical Playhouse rituals - getting a magic word from Conky, jumping into the Magic Screen (with Magic Johnson), and watching one of the King of Cartoon's bizarre animations. Sprinkled throughout are musical numbers and visits from Playhouse regulars, and the whole thing ends with a visit from Santa. It turns out that Pee-Wee has asked for so many presents that there is no room left in Santa's sled for anyone else's gifts. Pee-Wee eventually breaks down and decides to share his haul with the children of the world, and learns a valuable lesson about how the holidays are about being selfless, not selfish.

The Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special is a rare treat for Pee-Wee fans for whom this flew under the radar the first time around, as well as lovers of all things kitsch, camp, and (let's face it) super, super gay. With a lineup like this it's truly something to behold - even if you're petrified by the thought of Grace Jones emerging from a wooden crate.