Jambi (Pee-wee's Playhouse)

Jambi is a character from "Pee-wee's Playhouse", originating before the TV series, as part of Paul Reubens' stage show. He appears solely as a disembodied head in a gilded box, and perks up whenever Pee-wee or anyone else says a sentence with the word "wish" in it, and says "Wish? Did somebody say wish?" Then after the supplicant makes his or her request, Jambi, with a humorously somber tone, asks the supplicant to repeat after him, in a magic spell in the ancient language of "Jambese", usually consisting of three phrases:

*"Mekka-lekka hi mekka hiney ho!"
*"Mekka-lekka hi mekka chahney ho!"
*"Mola-mekka chala mekka hola hayla hey!"

The supplicant often misspeaks the third phrase or says it slowly, but Jambi doesn't mind, as with a vigorous headshake reminiscent of characters from Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie he makes the wish come true complete with special-effect rings. He usually says, after granting the wish: "The wish is granted. Long live Jambi." Jambi was played by longtime friend of Paul Reubens and fellow Groundling, John Paragon. Paragon also served as writer and co-director (along with Reubens) on many episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse.

Jambi's powers can grant many different kinds of wishes. He can even grant selfishly-made wishes (usually made by Pee-wee himself) or wishes wished by other Playhouse denizens like Globey and Miss Yvonne. One wish made by Pterri in "Fire In the Playhouse" even involved looking in on someone's dreams!