Review | SNL: Pee-Wee Herman / Queen Ida & The Bon Temps Zydeco Band (S11E03)

Last week, I was thinking of random television episodes that could be fun for me to review in the future, and one of the first to come to mind was the Saturday Night Live episode that Pee-Wee Herman hosted in 1985.

Yesterday, July 31^st 2023, it was announced that Paul Reubens (best known for his character of Pee-Wee Herman) had passed away the day before, after a six-year battle with cancer. Reubens had kept his cancer battle a complete secret from the public eye, as he didn’t want his fans to worry about him.

After hearing this unfortunate news, I figured there was no better time than now to review the SNL episode he hosted as Pee-Wee Herman, on November 23, 1985.

He hosted the third episode of the show’s eleventh season, and before diving into it, I need to mention what a bizarre season this was altogether. This was mostly due to the fact that it marked the return of executive producer Lorne Michaels, who had taken a five-year hiatus from the show. You can feel rust in the wheels, and the cast (which included many future stars) were doing the best that they could.

Another thing that I should mention is that this episode is nearly impossible to find in its full, uncut broadcast form. The copy I have is a HEAVILY condensed version featured on the VHS tape Saturday Night Live: The Best of 1985, and runs for 20 minutes. With commercials, the original broadcast was 90 minutes long. Also noteworthy is that both musical performances by Queen Ida & The Bon Temps Zydeco Band have been removed from this version. Even the mention of their name by announcer Don Pardo has been removed from the opening credits.

Through the magic of YouTube, I was able to find two sketches omitted from my VHS version, which I will throw in at the appropriate spots.

All that having been said, let’s take a look at the 198^th episode of Saturday Night Live: Pee-Wee Herman / Queen Ida & The Bon Temps Zydeco Band (S11E03).

COLD OPEN

The cast (Robert Downey Jr., Jon Lovitz, Anthony Michael Hall, Danitra Vance, Nora Dunn and Joan Cusack) look up as Pee-Wee Herman walks a tight rope between the World Trade Centers, making the sketch even more sentimental.

This is all visually entertaining, as Herman is clearly on a stage in his close-up shots, but for the wide shots we’re graced with the sight of a tiny Pee-Wee figurine walking a tight rope between two miniature Twin Towers. A bird gets in the way of Pee-Wee, making him lose his balance and fall off the tightrope. In mid-freefall, Herman shouts the show’s signature catchphrase: LIVE FROM NEW-YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!!

To my memory, this has got to be the shortest cold open I’ve seen on the show, running at a mere 50 seconds, but it gets the point across, and lets the audience know the kind of wackiness they’re in store for during the next 90 minutes (60 minutes in syndication / 20 minutes on my VHS tape).

OPENING CREDITS

I need to briefly mention the opening credits because, as I mentioned previously, season 11 of SNL featured many actors / comedians that would become well known in years to come, such as Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall (SNL’s youngest male cast member at 17 years old), Joan Cusack, Jon Lovitz and Damon Wayans.

PEE-WEE HERMAN MONOLOGUE

This is, for me, a highlight of this episode because it features Pee-Wee in his full element: in front of a live audience. He’s no stranger to this as can be seen in The Pee-Wee Herman Show, not to mention all of his appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Pee-Wee Loves the audience, and the audience loves him.

The usual guest host will stay on stage and recite their monologue, but Pee-Wee goes right into the audience, jumping at a male audience member, shouting “Catch me!”. He then walks to a woman in the audience:

-What’s your name, miss?

-Valerie.

-Valerie, for the duration of tonight’s show, your secret Saturday Night Live name is going to be “Valerie O.”.

He then addresses the rest of the audience and tells them their secret names are their first name followed by the letter “O”, after which he approaches the main camera and puts his face right to it. I can’t help but wonder if this was all improvised, because it sure feels like it. On the other hand, certain aspects lead me to believe it was all scripted:

1. A man holding up cue cards can be seen in one shot
2. Lorne Michaels is notorious for not being fond of ad-libs or improvisations on the show

We’re then treated to another Pee-Wee Herman trademark: Prop Comedy! He first takes out a pair of platform shoes and does the Tequila dance (as seen in the 1985 film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure). He then takes out a pair of over-sized pink high heels and does a dance to the song Fever. He then finally takes out a pair of Chuck Taylor’s tennis shoes and once again dances to Tequila, this time standing on his tip toes. Quite impressive, actually.

While putting on the tennis shoes, he asks the audience if they’ve seen his movie Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. He then happily reports that the film has done well, but not as well as Back to the Future, which is said with some playful bitterness.

“The plot of my next film is going to be me going back in time and trying to find Michael J. Fox’s parents and make sure they never meet.”

Once again, this whole monologue is a hoot to watch, and I wish Pee-Wee would have had the opportunity to host the show some more.

JUST SAY NO… TO THE ARMY

The next sketch doesn’t feature Pee-Wee Herman in it at all, but is rather a pre-recorded segment that spoofs public service announcements from the ‘80s.

We see Anthony Michael Hall in a car with three friends, two of which I recognize: Robert Downey Jr. at the wheel and future Kids in the Hall member Bruce McCulloch in the passenger seat. We quickly get the idea that peer pressure is the topic at hand here: Hall is handed a bottle of alcohol from Mr. Downey Jr., and he hesitantly takes a drink. Then, as they hop out of the car, Mr. MCulloch offers him a cigarette. Once again, he reluctantly accepts the offer.

Next the four friends walk into a building. It’s not clear as to where they are. It almost feels like they’re going to pressure young Hall into getting a tattoo. The next shot just shows him shouting “NO!”, and it’s revealed to be an Army recruiting center, which he walks out of, followed by the caption: “The Army. It’s like playing with a loaded gun.”.

Honestly, I don’t really get this one. I understand the whole parody aspect and how there was probably a similar commercial relating to drugs and / or alcohol, but I don’t really understand the whole rejecting the Army aspect.

However, I will say that the sketch is well filmed and that they captured the feel of old ‘80s commercials perfectly.

LOCKER ROOM

This is probably my favorite sketch from the episode. Randy Quaid and Pee-Wee play two friends in a locker room after a workout, and Quaid reveals to Pee-Wee that he and his wife are having intimacy problems, and he tries to hint that he’s thinking of hiring a prostitute. Of course, innocent Pee-Wee isn’t catching on to any of the hints, and all of the misunderstandings lead to hilarious results, and a memorable punchline!

PEE-WEE’S THANKSGIVING SPECIAL

This is a strange one. Even having just watched it last night, I still don’t know what to make of it. I get that it’s poking fun at Holiday Specials of the past, and there were elements I found funny, like Pee-Wee clearly reading from cue cards, in an exaggerated fashion.

Co-hosting this special is Brooke Shields (Joan Cusack), and this is where I think it loses me. There are several jokes revolving around Brooke’s intelligence, and how she doesn’t understand certain things because her whole life has been modeling, and nothing else. I don’t know much about the actual Brooke Shields, so whether or not this is how she was treated at the time, I don’t know. I think that’s why I didn’t get it as much: because it’s very much of the time, and if you weren’t around or aware of this back then, you probably won’t get the joke.

Terry Sweeney performs as Diana Ross, and I must say he does a rather good job in the part. Danitra Vance plays Cicely Tyson, who shows up to give a dark history of Thanksgiving:

–“When the Indians first celebrated the first Thanksgiving, they had a lot more to be thankful for than they do today.”

–“What do you mean, Cicely?”

-“Well, since then, the Indians have had their land stolen by the white man, and they’ve been massacred.”

Pee-Wee’s reply to this is that she’s bumming him out, and he only invited her to introduce the next sketch, which features himself, Brooke Shields (Cusack) and Diana Ross (Sweeney) recreating a hippy Thanksgiving from the late ‘60s. Hall & Oates (Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey Jr.) then show up, only to be cut off by Herman, saying that they’ve run out of time.

Again, I do not know what to make of this sketch. There just seems to be a lot going on, and many of the jokes are now dated. However, I’ve discovered that the sketch was co-written by frequent Pee-Wee collaborator Phil Hartman, who would join the cast the following season and become an SNL legend.

At this point on my VHS tape, we go straight to the goodnights / end credits, but before we get to that, I’ll talk about two additional sketches I found on YouTube:

BIG HOUSE (A.K.A. “JAIL CELL”)

Jon Lovitz’s recurring character Tommy Flanagan (the Pathological Liar) is joined in a jail cell by Pee-Wee Herman, and the two exchange lies about past crimes they’ve committed.

This is a fun sketch, as every lie gets crazier and crazier as the sketch progresses. The big payoff is when the guard (Dan Vitale) shows up to bail them out and reveals the actual crime that Tommy had committed to get himself there.

Big shame that this one was cut out of my VHS version, as I find it to be much better than Pee-Wee’s Thanksgiving Special.

DINOSAUR TOWN

Although I was able to find this sketch on YouTube, it wasn’t uploaded by the official Saturday Night Live channel, but rather by a user named Dwayne_Mitchell, who made the decision to mirror and zoom in on the picture in an effort to avoid being picked up by copyright detectors. I flipped the images back to the original orientation for the screenshots below.

The story revolves around Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant (Randy Quaid and Joan Cusack) who are about to lose their Dinosaur Town theme park due to them being $1,000,000 in debt. Pee-Wee is devastated upon hearing the news, and the three of them come up with an idea to put a mouse in a Coke bottle and sue the Coca-Cola Company. This is very reminiscent of the Bob & Doug McKenzie “Mouse in a Beer Bottle” sketch from SCTV.

Pee-Wee calls a couple of his friends from Chicago (Anthony Michael Hall and Damon Wayans), and they hook him up with a Coke bottle fully equipped with a mouse.

As you may have guessed, everything works out in the end and the Sturdevants don’t lose Dinosaur Town. This one was a lot of fun in terms of story and writing, and is WAY better than the Thanksgiving Special. I still can’t understand why that one was featured on the VHS release, and these last two weren’t.

The remaining sketches that I haven’t been able to find online are: The Pat Stevens Show, Die Foreigner Die! (a trailer spoof for a Sylvester Stallone / Chuck Norris action flick), Weekend Update (Don Novello returns as Father Guido Sarducci after a five-year hiatus), Love Letter, Pregnancy Tips and Money Magnetism Seminar.

GOODNIGHTS

The cast dance behind Pee-Wee as he does a rendition of James Brown’s Sex Machine. Great way to end the show, if you ask me!

So there you have it, the infamous Pee-Wee Herman episode of Saturday Night Live. Overall, I enjoyed the sketches that I was able to watch, and as strange as it is to see an SNL host be the SAME character during the whole show, it works here as Pee-Wee just has that fantastic screen presence, not to mention a great chemistry with the entire cast.

SCORE: 4 / 5

R.I.P. Paul Reubens (1952-2023)