‘SNL’ character Pat gets reclaimed as nonbinary icon in new doc with Julia Sweeney: ‘Pat is sexy’

A lot of people say, “What’s that?” It’s Pat!

A once-fan-favorite Saturday Night Live character, later criticized as problematic and hurtful, is getting reintroduced, this time as a nonbinary icon, thanks to a group of trans and enby comedians in the new documentary film, We Are Pat, which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Watch the trailer exclusively above.)

“On one hand, I felt really fondly towards Pat…but I do think that Pat also was a little bit of, subconsciously, a cautionary tale about what would happen if you’re gender non-conforming or nonbinary or illegible to society, that people are always going to be obsessed with this one thing about you and will hound you and won’t leave you alone,” We Are Pat director Rowan Haber explains to Entertainment Weekly of his experience with the character, whom he first watched around age 10 and felt a spark of recognition that he wouldn’t fully realize until years later.

So Haber assembled a queer comedy think tank of fellow trans and nonbinary creatives to workshop new sketches that take the androgynous SNL character from a ’90s relic to someone who better represents their own experiences dealing with cis-panic and gender politics in the modern age — while no longer making Pat the butt of the joke. And along for the ride is Pat’s creator, SNL alum Julia Sweeney.

“I acknowledge Pat’s history and I acknowledge my own journey and my own naivete, but that’s the thing the documentary gave me, is to be proud of this work I did so long ago,” Sweeney tells EW of the time she spent collaborating with Haber and the other participants.

It’s been quite the journey for Sweeney, who originated Pat — drawn from “odd mannerisms” of “irritating” former male and female coworkers from her time as an accountant — as a member of the Groundlings improv comedy troupe before they became her breakout character on SNL. But since Pat’s time in a series of popular recurring sketches between 1990 and 1994 (and in a widely derided spinoff feature film), the character has been the subject of controversy in recent years.

In 2017, Transparent creator Joey Soloway criticized the character as “hateful” to nonbinary people and “an awful piece of anti-trans propaganda,” and in 2021, Abby McEnany’s Showtime series Work in Progress depicted the lead being haunted by a lifetime of Pat comparisons. The latter show also featured Sweeney attempting to make amends for the androgynous caricature. (McEnany is also interviewed in We Are Pat.)

Sweeney explains that since the character was never actually meant to be intersex, nonbinary, or transgender, she never considered people identifying with the character and being hurt by Pat.

“It’s almost like I never dreamed of that. And this is really my own naivete, and it’s really wrong of me: I never thought of actual Pat people watching SNL,” she admits. 

Sweeney says that in the early years, she and Pat were embraced by the gay community, which reinforced her view that the character was not problematic. Then, when the tides turned, she just wanted to put her alter ego behind her.

“About 10 years ago, when people were canceling Pat, or whatever you want to call it, criticizing it, I just tried to forget that I had ever played that character. I just thought, I don’t really agree with this, although I agree with some parts of it, and I’m not even on SNL anymore, plus I was parenting at the time, so it was like this will just fade away.”

But since mocking people like Pat was never her intent, apologizing for the character didn’t seem authentic either — that is, until she linked up with Haber and met the other participants in the documentary, who shared their own stories of being hounded about their gender identities and harassed in bathrooms.

“People sometimes would press me to apologize for even creating the character, and I don’t feel that way. I really am glad I did, and I actually came to love Pat so much. So I have to protect Pat,” Sweeney says. “But I think you do have to think about both things, and that’s why this documentary was so great for me. It was my own journey of, oh yeah, these are legitimate criticisms and they’re worth thinking about. And I definitely would’ve been more sensitive if I had known those things earlier.”

Haber credits Sweeney for accepting the offer to hear feedback from those affected by the comedian’s creation.

“What she has done is so admirable because the idea of actually taking into account the impact that your character had and then talking to the folks that it impacted and having conversations around it is a really beautiful thing,” he says.

The filmmaker continues, “Rather than just denying that you had a negative impact and ignoring people or just canceling the person who had a negative impact, I think having these conversations is a marker for how, hopefully, people can work through conflict.”

Among the moments of reclamation for the divisive character in the documentary — one that takes Sweeney by surprise — is writer Brontez Purnell admitting to the group that he finds Pat “hot” and would hook up with them.

“I hadn’t heard somebody say that they wanted to have sex with Pat so genuinely before. And that did have a huge impact on me,” Sweeney recalls of Purnell’s declaration.

“It might be because I’m older, but I look at it so differently now myself,” Sweeney elaborates. “I’ve changed too, and now I’m like, I guess at the time I knew there was something kind of lovable about Pat, but I also was playing Pat as kind of creepy…. Now I just think, no Pat’s really cute.”

She declares, “Have sex with Pat, whatever way that entails. Pat is sexy.”

We Are Pat — also featuring SNL alums Molly Kearney and Kevin Nealon, Murray Hill, River Butcher, and more — is playing at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. Watch the trailer above.