Stacey thanks the man that is Pee-wee Herman

God Bless the 80s and the amazing TV and films that punky decade produced. I think back to all the TV I’d watch over at my grandparents house — Dynasty, The A-Team, MASH, Fantasy Island — do they even make shows like that anymore? Whereas now our youth’s role models are characters like Foofa and Dora the Explorer, children of the 80s looked up to folks like Mr. T and Alexis Carrington (or at least I did). In fact, as a kid my favorite question to ask people was, “Would you rather drink a glass of Mr. T’s sweat or his pee?” (I always opted for his pee; though I don’t know why on earth guzzling urine seemed 100 times less gross than his nasty sweat.)

ANYWAY. One movie in particular has really come back to haunt me — the 1985 classic — Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. I think I have now watched this film around 20 times. Not because I’m suddenly developing a fetish for puny men in tight suits and red lipstick, but rather, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is the only TV Ollie will watch. And by TV, I mean iPad, he refuses to look at anything on a big screen (which is strange, but probably good).

I don’t know exactly how this obsession got started. I think one day I just happened to sit Ollie in front of Netflix on the iPad while I threw a load of laundry in and next thing I knew, I heard Ollie trying to imitate Pee-wee’s nasally “Hehehehh” laugh. The rest is history. Now Ollie cries if I try to put Elmo on to occupy him while I take a quick shower and screams in fury if I try Sesame Street on YouTube. All he wants is “Pee-pee” — no other fictional character will do. Is this good? I doubt it, but sometime’s a girl’s gotta shave her legs or make dinner!