Another Jew in Entertainment I never knew about: Pee-wee Herman and Jerry Lewis

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[Hollywood and Western Entertainment were filled with Jews in the past. There are many "white men" and "White women" I used to watch or listen to when I was young and a shocking amount of them were Jewish scum. Here are the Jews crying over this Jews' recent death. Jerry Lewis is a comedian I knew well. Well, in recent years when I became Jew wise I discovered he was a freaking Jew. Jews, Jews crawling everywhere… in acting and entertainment. Jan]

Pee-wee Herman, of blessed memory

I was deeply saddened to hear of the death on Monday of Paul Reubens, 70, the comic and actor who created the manic man-child character Pee-Wee Herman. Pee-wee was ubiquitous in the ‘80s, with a hit club act, late-night talk show appearances, major films and, perhaps his greatest achievement, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” a wondrous Saturday morning children’s show that hipster adults couldn’t resist.

Although it didn’t show up in his act, Reubens was Jewish (his father was one of the American pilots who flew fighter planes in Israel’s war of independence). In an appreciation, I wrote how it’s not a stretch to remember him as an heir to the comics who mined Jewish humor’s more anarchic vein. A costumed agent of pre-adolescent chaos, Pee-wee appeared to owe a debt to Jerry Lewis, the Marx Brothers, Soupy Sales and even Baby Snooks, the little-girl character created by Fanny Brice of “Funny Girl” fame.

My colleagues at Kveller remember Reubens as an incredible mensch. In the New York Times, critic James Poniewozik remembers how “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” “pushed his audience to be accepting of the weird and ambiguous and uncategorizable.” And if you want to check out a meeting of Jewish minds, Cracked recalls when Reubens was involved in a scandal that sparked an epic rant from the late comic Gilbert Gottfried.

Source: JTA Sunday