Conan Remembers Paul Reubens | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

I woke up Monday to uh devastating news that Paul Rubens uh had passed away and um you know you lose we lose people all the time there's always hearing about people that have died and um obviously uh you you know some you know better than others but uh it really uh hit me that Paul was gone he didn't tell a lot of us uh I don't think any of us that that he was sick he's been uh fighting I think his illness for a number of years and um I just adored this guy uh and I think one of the um things that people need to know is that obviously uh the character of PeeWee was just mind-numbingly funny and surreal and hilarious and original he was so funny as as Peewee but Paul when he was Paul Reubens he was so quick so razor sharp uh such a delightful person a very sensitive guy and um you know I sent this out in a tweet he would always be sending over on anyone's birthday if he knew them even slightly he would fill their inbox that day with all these like silly cartoons and memes about birthday old Disney cartoons old weird memes about birthday and cats falling into birthday cakes and he would do it all day long and uh it wasn't just me it was just anybody that he encountered he would do this for and uh such a lovely way of we all just want to feel seen or recognized and for someone like Paul to do that for so many people was just a gorgeous kind of statement that's a gorgeous statement of who he was and uh I have a bunch of memories but one thing you know he came to my Christmas party this year and he brought I think 15 gifts all individually wrapped and they're all silly things but individually wrapped gifts um my Christmas party the year before he brought a Peewee Chia Pet Head so I put it out on display this last year and Paul came and uh uh it was did you guys see him yeah I did he was there and uh and you know it's hard to believe this is what five months ago whatever whatever it was but he was at the party and um he brought all these gifts so many that Paul died on Monday and I came upstairs and it really hit me hard and I walked into the area just right next to my kitchen and I suddenly saw it but I remembered there were we opened up all of them but there were so many we didn't get to two and they're still there wrapped and I can't do it like I cannot open them because that feels like uh you know finishing I don't I just want to leave them wrapped for right now and I will unwrap them but I want to leave them unwrapped but then the other thing that happened last night which just is uh surreal and magical as you know Sona I'm not a computer person right and so uh I've been trying to get better at some guitar licks recently and I have this really good guitar teacher who's been helping me out and his technique is he sits with me for like two hours works with me and then he sends me these files it's videos of him explaining once again how to do it so I don't forget and I'm not good at this I'm terrible at this so I you know he sent it to me I pressed the button to download it and it went somewhere in my computer and I wasn't sure where it went so last night I start looking around in the file part of my computer which I never do I never do that yeah this is not something I do and I'm looking at like the Google Chrome and I'm looking at this and I'm like where would this go and then I find a big thing of files and I'm going and I never do this and I'm going through the whole thing of files and seeing all these jpeg 33 this many millibytes whatever I'm sorry really imbuing those with personality that they don't have I know I'm sorry I apologize I'm seeing numbers and I'm seeing files and some of them are miscellaneous things we did for the covid shows for The Late Night show during covid some of them are during I mean just literally just filled with stuff and then I see this tiny tiny little square and it's this little person and I S and I'm thinking that looks like Paul and I click on it and it's a message from a year ago that he sent me that I had watched at the time and it was for my birthday year before last so it's you know a year and two months 14 months ago whatever it was 15 months ago and he just suddenly comes up on the screen and talks to me and I remember this message because I loved it so much and saved it but it was but I had forgotten and he said he's just him talking to me and telling me in a way it felt like he was saying goodbye because it was him saying you know how much he values our friendship and I'm not going to get into you know details about it but it was such a I was just stunned and it was I think six minutes long and really funny but also just incredibly sweet and him talking to me and I just I when it was done I went in and I told my wife what I just watched and she was she started crying and she said oh my God good for him like he he went out of his way to tell people what they meant to him yeah you know what I mean he went out of his way to be sweet and kind and um you know I know he's I don't know and and I'm sure he did that for a lot of people and it made me realize what a generous thing to do if um at the you know this is just a year ago so he knows he's not well and uh to do that to to uh extend yourself like that and do that and it's such a gift because we we lose people and we have no idea yeah how you know and this this was a this was a nice thing he did it sounds crazy but it made me feel so much better do you know what I mean it's like he just showed up on my computer magically and had this nice conversation with me um I don't know I just uh I've been thinking about him constantly and it felt appropriate who's on the podcast in 2020 and again this is Paul this is not Peewee this is Paul and I don't know how well you guys remember it but he's so quick and so agile and fast and delightful I don't remember him being pretty humble about things you know not wanting to overstep verbally and things like that yeah yeah it's uh he's I don't know not we shall not see his like again

Channel: Team Coco

Views: 737,218

Keywords: team coco podcasts, team coco podcast, podcast, conan obrien needs a friend, conan needs a friend, conan o’brien needs a friend, needs a friend, conan o’brien podcast, conan o’brien needs a friend podcast, celebrity interview, comedy podcast, conan podcast, matt gourley, sona movsesian, paul reubens, pee-wee herman, pee-wee

Id: m17fqR8iGPI

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/AlaskaProject]

RIP Paul Reubens. This is a great personal story, thanks for sharing Conan!

[u/reddbunny1370]

Massive onion cutting aside, I love the idea of Conan finally going through his Downloads folder and looking through years and years of saved files.

[u/L00k_Again]

I don't know much about Paul Rubens the person, but I can say that his creativity and Pee-wee Herman character transcends time. I remember that character from when I was a kid, and my kids absolutely loved his movies. He brought a lot of laughs to our home. Especially memorable as we watched them when our family was going through some serious upheaval. Much needed relief.

RIP Paul.

[u/winothirtynino]

Oh man. I've seen and heard of so many of those videos he sent to various people. Now listening to this and realizing he'd been sick for 6 years, I really think maybe he was sending everyone an eventual farewell. How incredibly sweet and sad.

[u/AlpacasaurusRex]

This is super touching. Think we could all do with a friend like Paul.

[u/pikpin]

Oh my gosh, the full CONAF episode with him is dated March 9, 2020, such a great re-listen. Edit: the postpod banter is from a truly different era 🧡

[u/TrinkieTrinkie522cat]

Lucky us. We saw the Pee Wee Herman Show live in Hollywood back in the early 80s. It was hysterical. What a loss.

[u/MASTERtaterTOTS]

How lucky to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard

[u/brady2gronk]

I heard the Paul Reubens CONAF episode on Sirius yesterday.

Bittersweet in retrospect, know he was battling cancer but he still had some really good banter with Conan.