If you grew up watching 90s television, you probably have a very specific image burned into your brain: a person with short, curly black hair, thick glasses, and a blue western-style shirt. That person is Pat. Created and played by Julia Sweeney, Pat was a staple of Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994.
The premise was basically a one-note joke that lasted for years. Nobody knew if Pat was a man or a woman. It sounds simple, maybe even lazy by today's standards, but at the time, it was a cultural phenomenon. Then came Chris.
When Dana Carvey stepped onto the screen as Chris, the "gender-ambiguous" love interest, the absurdity hit a fever pitch. Pat and Chris SNL sketches weren't just about a character; they were about the absolute panic that ensues when society can't put someone in a box.
The Origins of the Androgyny
Julia Sweeney didn't just pull Pat out of thin air. Honestly, the character started at The Groundlings, the famous improv troupe in LA. Sweeney has mentioned in several interviews—including a recent 2025 retrospective—that Pat was actually based on real people she worked with during her days as an accountant.
She noticed these "annoying" coworkers who had specific, somewhat nasally voices and boundary-crossing personalities. The androgyny was actually a suggestion from her friend Jim Emerson. He thought making the character's gender a mystery would add a layer of tension.
He was right.
When Pat debuted on December 1, 1990, alongside host John Goodman, the audience went wild. The "joke" wasn't that Pat was weird. It was that everyone else—the "normal" people—were losing their minds trying to figure Pat out.
Who Was Chris?
We can't talk about Pat without talking about Chris. In the SNL sketches, Chris was played by Dana Carvey. Later, in the infamously poorly-received 1994 movie It's Pat, the role was taken over by Dave Foley.
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Chris was the mirror image of Pat. Equally vague. Equally oblivious.
The peak of their relationship on SNL happened when Pat and Chris proposed to each other at the exact same time. It was a masterclass in writing around pronouns. They used names like "Terry" or "Teri" for friends. They discussed movies like Tootsie. They even debated whether to watch a football game or Murphy Brown.
Every single line was a calculated move to avoid a reveal. It was like watching a verbal chess match where the prize was a binary gender label that never arrived.
The Controversy and the 2025 Reclamation
Look, let’s be real. If you watch these sketches today, they feel... complicated. For a long time, the LGBTQ+ community, specifically non-binary and trans people, viewed Pat as a "hateful" trope. Joey Soloway, the creator of Transparent, famously called the character "anti-trans propaganda."
Sweeney was devastated by that. She’s gone on record saying it "broke her heart" because she never intended Pat to be the butt of the joke.
But something interesting happened recently.
In 2025, a documentary titled We Are Pat premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It featured a group of trans and non-binary comedians—including SNL alum Molly Kearney—re-examining the character.
Instead of canceling Pat, they reclaimed them.
What the Documentary Revealed:
- The Escape: Sweeney admitted that playing Pat was a way for her to escape the "gendered pressure" of being a woman in the 90s "boys club" of comedy.
- The Empowerment: Many younger trans writers told Sweeney that seeing someone on TV who didn't fit a mold—even if it was for a joke—was actually transformative for them as kids.
- The Shift: The focus moved from "What is Pat?" to "Why are we so obsessed with knowing?"
Why the Movie Failed (Miserably)
You might remember the movie It's Pat. Or maybe you don't, because hardly anyone saw it. It has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. It earned about $60,000 at the box office against an $8 million budget.
Why did it tank?
Basically, the sketch worked because Pat was an obstacle. In a five-minute SNL bit, Pat is the person preventing Kevin Nealon or Roseanne Barr from getting a straight answer. When you make Pat the protagonist of a 78-minute film, the mystery gets exhausting.
The movie tried to add a plot involving a stalker neighbor named Kyle (Charles Rocket) who was obsessed with Pat’s gender. It turned a lighthearted, if awkward, sketch into something that felt a bit mean-spirited and "creepy." Even the inclusion of the band Ween couldn't save it.
The Legacy of Pat and Chris SNL
The legacy of Pat and Chris SNL is one of transition—not just in the gender sense, but in how we consume comedy. In the early 90s, the "mystery" was the punchline. Today, the punchline is the discomfort of the people around Pat.
Julia Sweeney has said that if she did it today, she’d make Pat even more "enigmatic," almost like a Charlie Chaplin figure. Less talking, more reacting.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Critics:
- Watch with Context: If you revisit the sketches on YouTube or Peacock, look at the other actors. Notice how their blood pressure rises while Pat remains perfectly calm. That’s where the real comedy lies.
- Follow the New Wave: Keep an eye out for the documentary We Are Pat. It’s a rare example of a creator and a marginalized community actually having a productive conversation instead of just shouting on social media.
- Appreciate the Writing: Even if the premise feels dated, the technical skill required to write five minutes of dialogue without a single gendered pronoun is actually pretty impressive.
Pat and Chris SNL might be relics of a different era, but they started a conversation about identity that we’re still having today. Whether you find it hilarious or "cringe," you can't deny the impact those thick glasses and that blue shirt had on TV history.
To truly understand the evolution of this character, your next step should be to look up Julia Sweeney's interviews from the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, where she discusses the "sexy" reclamation of Pat by modern queer writers.