VOD Catch-Up: "We Are Pat" is a Fun, Intelligent Ode to Queer Dissection
Monday, August 24, 2026 at 9:00AM by Joanna Sodeman-Taylor
I’m not sure when I first heard of Julia Sweeney’s breakout SNL sketch “It’s Pat!”. Joe Reid’s comprehensive article on SNL’s queer catalogue was what made me aware of it years ago. Then a young adult of less inquisitive sensitivities, I almost certainly brushed off the whole project as a reflex, the controversial legacy of Pat’s discomforted, gender-nonconformist schtick stinking as too problematic and outdated to bother engaging with. Watching it as a slightly older adult, I can’t say brushing this off was a bad move, even if my reasoning was flawed. There’s certainly a lot of material to seriously analyze - if I felt it was worth the effort. What exactly is the ultimate joke of this character? Are they worth rehabilitating under the progressive gaze of the gays, let alone any other group who feels represented by Pat, for better or worse?
Lucky for us, director Ro Haber saw plenty to discuss, and their 2025 documentary We Are Pat gives this character the intelligent, playful, communal autopsy they deserve . . . .
Haber has assembled a crack team of queer comedians and cultural figures to analyze the impact of this iconic character, working together to interpret how Pat would fit into a modern understanding of gender identity, comedy, disability, and physical appearance. Ally Beardsley, Hayden Johnson, and Murray Hill were among the folks I knew about going into the film, but literally everyone featured emerges as having a smart, engaging point of view. They also come across as reflexively hilarious, making the cast of We Are Pat one of the year’s most powerful dream blunt rotations. On that note, you could imagine a film with such easy chemistry being shot with the precision of a stoned hangout among friends or an overbright YouTube video essay, happy to default on said chemistry instead of film craft. Thankfully, Haber makes sure to light, cut, and mix the whole endeavor as an actual film.
Most of these folks grew up with “It’s Pat!” and the 1994 feature film while it was airing, at incredibly formative times in the development of their queer identities and their very sense of who they are as people. All of them have watched it as grown-up, out-and-proud queers, secure in their identities and with very complicated feelings about, what, if anything is funny about the whole thing. They’re laughing, sure, but why? Does it feel good to laugh at, or with, Pat? More importantly, they all have their own ideas about Pat as a character, seizing on different aspects of Sweeney’s appearance, mannerisms, and performance. Is Pat sexy? Are they autistic? Are they just a weirdo whose off-putting qualities are being totally ignored because no one can guess their gender on sight? Are any of these qualities mutually exclusive?
Julia Sweeney also emerges as an insightful orator on Pat. I simply wasn’t expecting her to make an appearance, and Haber radiates a genuine awe at being able to hear her perspective on her most famous creation. It helps when her home decor is so fascinating - girl has a lot of art about Adam and Eve! But Haber’s admiration never precludes them from asking Sweeney tough questions about Pat’s inception and legacy, which she answers with candor and eloquence. The context she provides around her breakout amidst SNL’s bro-iest star cast is eye-opening. I would not have considered Pat’s androgyny as a career necessity when Sandler and Spade were doing skits in drag. She was as surprised as anyone by Pat’s gender nonconformity being the audience’s biggest takeaway from the character’s first appearance, which quickly evolved into the central joke of all future skits.
Sweeney’s allyship to the queer community also belatedly exposed her to Pat’s largely negative legacy among actual gender nonconforming people, which she regrets deeply, yet she’s also delighted to see how the folks of We Are Pat are attempting to recuperate them. The film reads like a well-edited grad school cloister coming together under the auspices of a really good mentor and a founding practitioner of their field of study, the field being, of course, an illustrious dual degree in Being Gay and Live Comedy Performance. It’s a hilarious exercise, made all the richer for not settling on any unified notion of how Pat “should” be handled in a modern age. Their discourse makes We Are Pat a worthwhile exploration, the lack of resolution leaving room for us at home to try and study the issue ourselves. It’s noteworthy that the troupe’s long-gestated re-interpretation of today’s Pat is just as grating as the original SNL sketches. Just because it’s more progressive art doesn’t mean it’s strictly better. That’s gloriously true for the revamped Pat but, thankfully, Haber’s film is lively and essential.
We Are Pat is currently available to rent on most major streaming platforms.
Reader Comments (2)
Sweeney's involvement and the way you articulate it, not to mention the rest of this review, really make me want to watch this, even though my familiarity with the figure of Pat is mostly as a highly offensive aberration from SNL that inspires queer folks on YouTube to post reaction videos.
It's always interesting to go into a doc about a cultural artifact you've never experienced firsthand or felt was a big part of pop culture to the people around you. I'm not sure SNL even aired in Portugal at the time, and apparently, the movie only aired on Portuguese TV nine years after it premiered in American theaters.
I have an admiration for Julia Sweeney after listening to God Said Ha multiple times, and also Letting Go of God. In those performances, Sweeney mentioned her complicated feelings about Pat. I urge everyone to listen to both of those audiobooks (is that even the right term? Audio essay maybe?) if they are going to watch this documentary.