It’s Friday! Procrastinate and count down to happy hour with these lovely bits!

In case you haven’t heard, Pee-Wee Herman is back! He’s doing live shows and appearing on TV shows and all other sorts of wonderful things.

Is Paul Reubens a bit too old to be doing Pee-Wee Herman? One could make the case. But considering how he was railroaded off TV in the early 90s (and for what, exactly?), I think the man is just making up for unjustly lost time. He could keep doing Pee-Wee until he’s 90 years old, and I would say ‘bravo’!

* Note to Paul Reubens: Please don’t do Pee-Wee when you’re 90. Don’t go out like Groucho.

One part of Pee-Wee’s renaissance is a new, spiffed-up web site, which has many neat things. But perhaps one of the neatest items is The Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special, which you can watch there in its entirety. It is one of the most deliriously weird Christmas specials ever made–in the best possible sense, of course.

For a lo-res sample, check out the opening below. A chorus of Marines (I think) sings a Pee-Wee-related carol, then Pee-Wee goes nuts introducing all the Playhouse denizens and special guests. Such luminaries as Frankie Avalon, Little Richard, Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson…the list goes on and on!

Also, did you know that Pee-Wee appeared in the video for the holiday classic “Reggae Christmas”? And did you know that there was a holiday classic called “Reggae Christmas”? And did you know that this holiday classic was sung not by a real reggae artist, but Canadian rocker Bryan Adams?

I’m sure you feel much better now, knowing this exists. Yes, Bryan Adams sucks (he sucks so much that he won’t allow embedding of his videos, hence it’s absence in this post). But Pee-Wee improves anything he’s involved in a full 35 percent. It’s been proven by science.

If you want to watch the OFFICIAL version of the video, it’s here. If you’re wondering why Pee-Wee looks so glum, it’s because his friends made him the MTV VJ for the evening on Christmas and abandoned him shortly thereafter. You can peep the full version here. I would have included it below, but (a) it’s much lower res, and (b) it won’t allow me to turn off autoplay.

Sorry, but I can’t have my webbed site playing “Reggae Christmas” each time it loads. Can’t do it, not even for the love of Pee-Wee.