Pee Wee Herman crashes the BBQ

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Even outside the Playhouse, Paul 'Pee Wee Herman' Reubens was a delightful source of chaos

Paul Reubens once said yes to a random dinner invite. The chaos that followed? Pure Pee-wee.

Things always got weird when visitors popped into Pee-wee’s Playhouse and it turns out, things got just as weird when Pee-wee popped into real life. On The Late Show with David Letterman, Paul Reubens shared how he once started accepting random party invites. The results? Delightfully unhinged.

Reubens and Letterman had a long-running comedic chemistry dating back to Pee-wee’s earliest days on Late Night. “He was like the straight man, and I would just go berserk,” Reubens said in a recent HBO doc. But this time, it was Reubens telling the story about the night he said yes to a dinner with someone he barely knew, only to end up the main course of attention at a surreal, chicken-studded gathering. “They were following the fork, like, ‘Ooh,’ up to the mouth,” he laughed. One guest even whispered, “This is just about like having Marilyn Monroe over here.”

Hear the stories yourself in Pee Wee’s iconic voice in the full story.

Then there was the time he crashed a bonfire party thrown by some “college kids” (read: high schoolers). They’d called ahead to say Pee-wee Herman was on the way, so naturally, he was greeted like a rock star. One kid, overwhelmed, approached him respectfully, then promptly barfed on himself. Reubens? Unshaken. Just another day in the extended universe of Pee-wee’s Playhouse.

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Airplane seat-mates are a crapshoot, but they can feel like something out of a story

There are maybe five authors I’d recognize on sight, so we can forgive this woman for not spotting the one beside her.

Airplane seatmates are a gamble. Best-case scenario? Quiet. Polite. Not coughing. Worst case? You get a talker... or someone clipping their nails.

But novelist Joseph Fasano hit the rarest of jackpots: the woman next to him was deeply absorbed in The Swallows of Lunetoo, his book.

She didn’t recognize him. He didn’t say a word. Instead, he posted a photo of her reading it to X (formerly Twitter) and asked the internet: Should I say something? Or let this magic moment drift by at 35,000 feet?

Thousands weighed in. After hours of crowdsourced courage, Fasano finally broke the silence. He turned and asked if she was enjoying the book. She smiled and said she was. “I’ve read it about 100 times,” he replied.

Cue the moment of realization. She finally connected the dots—and, according to Fasano, they’re now “buds.”

Bonus: He’s not the only one. Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) once sat next to a man binge-watching The Office with zero clue she was seated next to Dwight himself.

Some flights are just better cast than others.

The four words that can salvage any terrible conversation

Small talk is often just... talking small. But here’s the phrase that can save you from weather-chat purgatory:

You’re trapped in small talk. The topic? Weather. Or traffic. Or how “Mondays, am I right?” And now it’s your turn to respond. Do you:

A) Nod and die a little inside
B) Change your name and move to the woods
C) Use four magic words to rescue the moment and maybe your social life?

Go with C. Here they are:

“It reminds me of…”

Magical. Instantly flips a dead-end convo into something interesting.

Them: “It’s been really rainy.”

You:

• “It reminds me of when I lived in Australia. I missed this kind of gloom.”

• “It reminds me of my dad. Rainy days = backyard football.”

• “Reminds me of every Adele video I’ve ever sobbed through in traffic.”

Suddenly, you're not making small talk. You're making a connection.

Bonus alternatives for your awkward-escape arsenal:

• “Funny you mention that…”

• “That makes me think of…”

• “That brings to mind…”

Add one to your rotation. It might help you if you ever find yourself at dinner with a random celebrity or on a plane next to your favorite author.

From the friends group text…

Not since the days of Henry VIII have gender reveals been this dangerous. Behold: the latest face-melting way to announce your baby’s chromosome count. (Maybe turn your volume down.)

“I am become death, revealer of genders,” was the quote, right?