VOD Catch-Up: “We Are Pat” is a Enjoyable, Clever Ode to Queer Dissection – Weblog

by Joanna Sodeman-Taylor

I’m unsure after I first heard of Julia Sweeney’s breakout SNL sketch “It’s Pat!”. Joe Reid’s complete article on SNL’s queer catalogue was what made me conscious of it years in the past. Then a younger grownup of much less inquisitive sensitivities, I nearly definitely disregarded the entire mission as a reflex, the controversial legacy of Pat’s discomforted, gender-nonconformist schtick stinking as too problematic and outdated to trouble participating with. Watching it as a barely older grownup, I can’t say brushing this off was a foul transfer, even when my reasoning was flawed. There’s definitely a whole lot of materials to noticeably analyze – if I felt it was well worth the effort. What precisely is the final word joke of this character? Are they value rehabilitating underneath the progressive gaze of the gays, not to mention every other group who feels represented by Pat, for higher or worse?

Lucky for us, director Ro Haber noticed a lot to debate, and their 2025 documentary We Are Pat offers this character the clever, playful, communal post-mortem they deserve . . . .

Haber has assembled a crack group of queer comedians and cultural figures to investigate the influence of this iconic character, working collectively to interpret how Pat would match into a contemporary understanding of gender identification, comedy, incapacity, and bodily look. Ally Beardsley, Hayden Johnson, and Murray Hill had been among the many people I knew about going into the movie, however actually everybody featured emerges as having a wise, participating perspective. They additionally come throughout as reflexively hilarious, making the forged of We Are Pat one of many yr’s strongest dream blunt rotations. On that word, you can think about a movie with such straightforward chemistry being shot with the precision of a stoned hangout amongst mates or an overbright YouTube video essay, pleased to default on mentioned chemistry as a substitute of movie craft. Thankfully, Haber makes positive to gentle, lower, and blend the entire endeavor as an precise movie.

Most of those people grew up with “It’s Pat!” and the 1994 function movie whereas it was airing, at extremely formative instances within the growth of their queer identities and their very sense of who they’re as folks. All of them have watched it as grown-up, out-and-proud queers, safe of their identities and with very sophisticated emotions about, what, if something is humorous about the entire thing. They’re laughing, positive, however why? Does it really feel good to snicker at, or with, Pat? More importantly, all of them have their very own concepts about Pat as a personality, seizing on totally different features of Sweeney’s look, mannerisms, and efficiency. Is Pat attractive? Are they autistic? Are they only a weirdo whose off-putting qualities are being completely ignored as a result of nobody can guess their gender on sight? Are any of those qualities mutually unique?

Julia Sweeney additionally emerges as an insightful orator on Pat. I merely wasn’t anticipating her to make an look, and Haber radiates a real awe at with the ability to hear her perspective on her most well-known creation. It helps when her residence decor is so fascinating – woman has a whole lot of artwork about Adam and Eve! But Haber’s admiration by no means precludes them from asking Sweeney robust questions on Pat’s inception and legacy, which she solutions with candor and eloquence. The context she offers round her breakout amidst SNL’s bro-iest star forged is eye-opening. I’d not have thought of Pat’s androgyny as a profession necessity when Sandler and Spade had been doing skits in drag. She was as stunned as anybody by Pat’s gender nonconformity being the viewers’s greatest takeaway from the character’s first look, which rapidly developed into the central joke of all future skits. 

Sweeney’s allyship to the queer neighborhood additionally belatedly uncovered her to Pat’s largely unfavorable legacy amongst precise gender nonconforming folks, which she regrets deeply, but she’s additionally delighted to see how the oldsters of We Are Pat try to recuperate them. The movie reads like a well-edited grad college cloister coming collectively underneath the auspices of a very good mentor and a founding practitioner of their area of examine, the sector being, after all, an illustrious twin diploma in Being Gay and Live Comedy Performance. It’s a hilarious train, made all of the richer for not selecting any unified notion of how Pat “should” be dealt with in a contemporary age. Their discourse makes We Are Pat a worthwhile exploration, the shortage of decision leaving room for us at residence to try to examine the difficulty ourselves. It’s noteworthy that the troupe’s long-gestated re-interpretation of in the present day’s Pat is simply as grating as the unique SNL sketches. Just as a result of it’s extra progressive artwork doesn’t imply it’s strictly higher. That’s gloriously true for the revamped Pat however, fortunately, Haber’s movie is energetic and important.

We Are Pat is presently accessible to lease on most main streaming platforms.