By Andy Emantsal
Thanks for stopping. Eheh. Some night huh? On this very night, ten years ago, on this same stretch of road, in a dense fog just like this, I saw the worst accident I ever seen. There was this sound, like a garbage truck, dropped off the empire state building. And when they finally pulled the driver’s body, from the twisted, burning, wreck, it looked like, this!! Muhaha!!! AARRGG!!! Yes sir. That was the worst, accident, I ever seen. I get off right up here. Have a nice day!! Eheh! Be sure 'n tell 'em Large Marge sent ya ahahahaha!!!
That scene was from the late, great, Pee-Wee Herman. That quote was in the Pee-Wee Herman's Big Adventure movie, that I know almost from memory. This iconic horror scene is found in a non-horror related cult classic of a children's TV show character, brought to a movie. Although I would like to argue that losing your best friend and ride, your favorite bicycle is a traumatizing horror of an experience to live through. He did get to have a big adventure trying to find it though. (No more spoilers if you haven't seen it, and shame on you for not watching this classic movie.)
RIP Paul Reubens.
I grew up watching Pee-wee's playhouse TV show. It was a great TV show for me because it's centered around weirdness. The main character Pee-Wee is an eccentric, goofy, oddball of a guy. Being a miscreant, misfit, and quite an oddball myself, I loved his TV show. He had living talking furniture, a genie, Spanish spelling ant's, jazz singing birds and a talking robot!!! What's today's secret word Conky???
The creepy talking robot would beep boop beep and print Pee-Wee the secret word. Whenever someone would say the secret word, I got to scream at the TV and not look crazy. I loved the vibrant colors and how he brought to life all the inanimate objects in his house. I still talk to my surroundings. EhEh!!! I make sure to have a Bluetooth earbud in my ear while I'm in public, so I'm not looking weird talking to walls and such that I bump into or sit on. Eheh!!!
When I was around 7, back in ‘87, my family got the VHS of this movie. This scene was traumatizing to me then. I literally had recurring nightmares associated with it. I had chronic night terrors for 3 years. The claymation scene where Large Marge's face morphed into a horror macabre of distortions, will forever be burned into my memory. As an impressionable 7 year old child it was scary. So scary were my recurring nightmares, that they deserve their own episode here in horror to culture.
In my next contribution, I will present exactly how horrifying my night terrors were. I will present from my perspective what I dreamt over, and over, and over for three years. It is pretty unsettling so please be forewarned and thank you for joining us at Horror To Culture.
