We Are Pat [Tribeca Festival Review]
In the early ‘90s, Saturday Night Live introduced a recurring character named Pat, played by Julia Sweeney. The joke of the sketches was that nobody Pat encountered could tell if they were a man or a woman, despite repeated efforts to figure that out. Pat was completely androgynous. It was a huge hit back in the day, but it looks quite different now. As cultural discussion of gender non-conformity continues to grow, some people feel making a gender ambiguous character the butt of the joke is cruel. Others insist that the joke was actually on the panicked characters who couldn’t move forward with their lives without definitively knowing if Pat was male or female.
Filmmaker Rowan Haber, who goes by they/them pronouns, grew up obsessed with Pat, even finding enjoyment in the much-maligned 1994 It’s Pat: The Movie. Their documentary film We Are Pat, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, attempts to recontextualize the character for our current age. Haber assembles a group of transgender and nonbinary comedians to first dissect the character, then to write/perform new Pat sketches from a contemporary perspective. Their insights are eye-opening. Everyone thinks Pat is funny, although they have different reasons why, and there are disagreements as to the intent of the sketches.
Haber convinces Sweeney to take part in the movie. She grapples with the Pat legacy. On one hand, her only concern at the time was coming up with something funny enough to break through the boys’ club that was SNL in the ‘90s. On the other, she recognizes that the sketches seem insensitive under modern sensibilities. And that, in a nutshell, is part of why Pat has endured. The SNL favorite predicted the examination of gender non-conformity that we’re having now, but instead of just generating laughter, it now produces worthy analysis.
The comedians prove there are ways to make Pat work in the 21st century. One of them devises an extreme right-wing Pat that’s absolutely hilarious. Others shift the perspective so that the joke is clearly on judgmental bigots. Seeing how they pick the character apart and put it back together again is never less than riveting. An old adage says it’s the kiss of death to analyze comedy; in this case, doing so offers enlightenment.
We Are Pat is a documentary that’s both thoughtful and funny. It can be enjoyed by viewers for whom gender is of interest or by those who simply want to take a closer look at a classic SNL character. If you happen to fall into both categories, all the better. As more and more people identify as trans, non-binary, and gender fluid, a film that heavily integrates humor into the subject has the power to open minds and hearts.
© 2025 Mike McGranaghan