HBO recently released the two-part docuseries, Pee Wee As Himself, featuring interviews with the dearly departed man-behind-the-bowtie Paul Reubens, to fill in the record. Naturally, the millennials behind Latina Media Co have thoughts. Powerhouse critic and Latina Media Co co-founder and editor-in-chief, Cristina Escobar grew up with Pee Wee and is now, thanks to the docuseries, making her kids watch it. Eighties baby and former stand-up comedian, Denise Zubizarreta is the latest addition to our team and is also team Pee Wee. Let’s get into it.
CRISTINA ESCOBAR: Justice for Paul Reubens! The man was wronged! As a kid, I remember being confused when he fell from grace and they canceled Pee Wee’s Playhouse. But now, watching the docuseries, I learned so much about what really went down and the ways the establishment at the time – the police, his competitors, and the tabloids – weaponized his sexuality as a gay (if closeted!) man against him.
DENISE ZUBIZARRETA: As a queer Latina comedian raised on weirdos and wonder, I’ve always seen Pee Wee as more than just a character – he was a camp icon, a subversive genius hiding rebellion in red bowties and bike baskets. Watching Pee Wee As Himself felt like getting a masterclass in how joy can be radical, especially when delivered by someone who never quite fits the mold. This docuseries doesn’t just reclaim his legacy – it reminds us how fragile creative freedom is when the moral panic police come knocking.
CRISTINA ESCOBAR: I also learned SO much about the man, his artistry, and how he inspired a generation – and I don’t actually mean us kids watching at home. I mean Reubens’ peers coming up with him. He was at the ground floor of the Groundlings, creating his Pee Wee character alongside Phil Hartman (who I guess later begrudged his one-time friend and collaborator’s success). He had a keen visual eye, insisting that Gary Panter power the looks behind Pee Wee’s universe. And then for his first Pee Wee movie, Reubens picked the unknown talent of TIM BURTON to direct!
DENISE ZUBIZARRETA: What struck me most was that Paul Reubens wasn’t just a performer – he was a walking, bowtie-wearing curator of camp chaos with the taste level of a museum director on mushrooms. Pee Wee’s Playhouse wasn’t just a kids’ show. It was a full-blown, technicolor installation piece – part punk cabaret, part pop-art fever dream. He tapped visionaries like Panter to build the show’s off-kilter aesthetic and gave future legends like Laurence Fishburne and Natasha Lyonne their first brushes with glorious weirdness. His universe was DIY meets Dada, with a splash of queer joy and a firm middle finger to conventional storytelling. Honestly, the man was doing maximalist multimedia performance art before half the art world knew how to plug in a glue gun.
CRISTINA ESCOBAR: The other thing that was really groundbreaking about Pee Wee’s Playhouse was how it featured diversity. All sorts of folks go to the playhouse, including people of different races, ages, and yes – sexualities – and it’s all just a normal part of the show. Reubens spoke about this choice to have a diverse cast and I appreciated his intentionality. This was the 80s, remember, and for a commercial hit to have so many people of color was still relatively new.
DENISE ZUBIZARRETA: Yes, Reubens wasn’t just ahead of the curve – he was the curve. In a decade obsessed with conformity, he built a world where weirdness, queerness, and multicultural joy weren’t just welcomed – they were foundational. Pee Wee’s Playhouse didn’t tokenize difference, it celebrated it. For so many of us who didn’t see ourselves in the primetime lineup, that show was quietly revolutionary. Reubens knew that inclusivity wasn’t some afterthought – it was part of the magic, and he used his platform to reflect the kind of world he believed should exist. That’s activism in Technicolor.
CRISTINA ESCOBAR: Of course, for all his success, Reubens also got punished for his prominence. Hollywood and Los Angeles at the time just couldn’t allow this queer fellow to make quality, wild performance art for kids and get rich doing it. They had to come after him, and when they did, his choice to be so private and hide behind the character worked against him. The public only knew his facade and had no relationship with the guy himself. No one came to his rescue.
DENISE ZUBIZARRETA: When Reubens was charged for having vintage gay erotica in his private collection, the message was loud and clear: queer art is obscene. There was no child porn – just a queer man with an archive the court chose to demonize. In outing him under the guise of prosecution, they punished his privacy and made his identity the crime. Heartbreaking.
CRISTINA ESCOBAR: I guess in the end, I appreciated how this series shed light on who Paul Reubens was as a person – how he was difficult, brilliant, charming, and weird – and how he deserves to be celebrated for it!
DENISE ZUBIZARRETA: This doc didn’t just remind me why I adored him – it helped me understand why I am the artist I am today. Paul Reubens showed us that art doesn’t need to explain itself – it just needs to exist. And that freedom? That joy? That’s everything.
