We Are Pat

In the 1990s, the U.S. TV show Saturday Night Live featured a popular series of sketches called “It's Pat.” Pat was a socially awkward character dressed in an old-fashioned cowboy shirt, whose gender no one knew. This was the point of each sketch: the discomfort Pat provoked in others, the questions they asked to try to determine their gender and Pat’s evasive answers.

Filmmaker Rowan Haber has been a big fan of “It's Pat” from an early age, but also feels discomfort. Pat was ahead of their time as a non-binary character, and thus a role model. At the same time, queerness was ridiculed: the character was nerdy, chubby and had traits of a neurodivergent person.

Together with a group of trans and non-binary comedians, Haber explores how they can reclaim Pat. What would Pat sketches look like in today's climate? They also ask Pat’s creator, actress Julia Sweeney, about her motivations when she created Pat. With a candid, critical and, of course, humorous perspective, We Are Pat answers the question: can something that once ridiculed us change into something that empowers us?