We Are Pat

WE ARE PAT explores the evolution of gender identity and comedy from the ’90s to the present day through the lens of the iconic “Saturday Night Live” sketch, It’s Pat. The film examines Pat’s origins as a joke rooted in the cultural anxiety of the ’90s around gender while drawing striking parallels to today’s culture wars around transness and queerness. Trans and non-binary comedians and culture-makers reimagine and rewrite the original Pat sketches, using camp and humor to reclaim and re-envision an iconic character in American comedy. The film explores humor as both a tool of oppression and a radical force for change. Beyond comedy, WE ARE PAT raises complex questions: How does art age? What responsibility does a creator have as cultural values evolve? Can we reclaim narratives that once mocked us, transforming pain into laughter, visibility, and ultimately, our own creations?

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

DIRECTORS STATEMENT:

For me, this film is both personal and political—an exploration of pop culture, identity, and the strange ways in which art lingers, morphs, and sometimes ages badly. At ten years old, I didn’t know why I was fixated on a bizarre ’90s sketch comedy character. I just knew something about

Pat felt familiar, unnerving, and oddly comforting. Years later, I realized the punchline wasn’t about me—it was me.

WE ARE PAT uses the cult phenomenon of It’s Pat as a prism to examine conversations I’ve had with myself, with my trans and non-binary peers, and with the culture at large. What starts as a pop culture excavation becomes something deeper: a reflection on gender identity, the elasticity of comedy, the ethics of authorship, and what happens when a joke outlives the era it was born in.

Set against the backdrop of the 1990s—a decade of chaotic visibility and rising cultural backlash—the film draws clear parallels to today. The same culture wars we thought we left in Blockbuster’s return bin are back, now turbocharged by legislation, social media, and outrage cycles. Revisiting this era lets us ask: how far have we really come? And how do we confront the past without just canceling it?

At its core, the film wrestles with questions like: What’s funny—and who gets to decide? What happens when the punchline gains agency? Can reclaiming a problematic character turn harm into something cathartic, sharp, and subversively empowering? The film also interrogates the role of the creator. What does it mean for Julia Sweeney to revisit It’s Pat now, decades after its release, in a radically different cultural landscape? How do we reckon with work that no longer aligns with who we are—or with the world it helped shape? What do we gain (or lose) when we engage with flawed cultural artifacts, instead of tossing them into the bin labeled “problematic”?

Humor is the engine of WE ARE PAT—not just as a subject, but as a tool. I see humor as a Trojan horse: it sneaks past defenses, invites reflection, and makes space for complex conversations.

And yet, the lineage of trans comedy remains largely undocumented, even though we’ve always been part of the story—laughing, surviving, and rewriting the script.

That’s why one of the most vital elements of WE ARE PAT is its celebration of the first-ever cohort of trans stand-up comics—brilliant, provocative, and fiercely funny artists who are reshaping the comedic landscape. Their performances crack open the conversation with wit, vulnerability, and power. They’re not just reclaiming the mic—they’re changing what’s possible on stage.

WE ARE PAT is my way of reclaiming space—not only to name the harm, but to spotlight the brilliance, nuance, and humor that have always existed in our community. Trans people aren’t just the butt of the joke—we are, and always have been, the ones telling it.

Runtime: 92 min

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