Pat (Saturday Night Live)
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Pat was an androgynous fictional character created and performed by Julia Sweeney for the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Pat was a somewhat overweight, sexually ambiguous character with short, curly black hair who wore glasses and a blue western-style shirt with tan slacks. The character spoke in a nasally voice that sometimes squeaked. Pat apparently suffered from very sweaty palms, and constantly wiped them on her or his clothing while making a strange whimpering sound, further adding to the character's unappetizing quality. Sweeney wore no makeup and colored her lips beige to further hide any sex identity clues.
The sketches always involved the celebrity guest hosts of the show playing everyday people who encounter Pat and then go to great lengths to discover Pat's true sex without being so rude as to actually ask (since Pat can be short for either "Patrick", a traditionally male name, or "Patricia", a traditionally female name). Pat remained completely oblivious, endlessly frustrating the questioners with answers that leave the character's sex vague. The character often made statements that seemed to reveal a sex, only to then immediately confuse things again. (A typical example might be, "Sorry if I'm a little grumpy, I have really bad cramps... I rode my bike over here, and my calf muscles are KILLING me!") In another sketch, Pat tells Kevin Nealon that her or his name is Carl Van Vechten, same as the coach of the Lakers, "except there's a big difference between him and me. I'm not the coach of a professional basketball team."
The character was popular enough to spawn a feature length 1994 film called It's Pat (from the lyrics of the character's theme song on Saturday Night Live). In the film, Pat meets Chris, another sexually ambiguous character played by Dave Foley. (On SNL, Chris had been played by Dana Carvey.) They quickly fall in love and propose to each other at the exact same time. Before the wedding, however, Chris breaks up with Pat on account of Pat's arrogance and the fact that Pat cannot decide on a direction in life. Meanwhile, Pat has become an object of obsession of a neighbor (Charles Rocket), who is so determined to discover Pat's sex that he goes insane. Pat also has a brief rock music career in the film and plays with the band Ween. The film was a critical and commercial bomb. As of April 1 2007, it is ranked #49 on the IMDb bottom 100 list, with a rating of 2.2.
Sweeney also helped co-author a book to coincide with the film's release, entitled "It's Pat!: My Life Exposed". Pat makes it through the entire 96 page book without revealing her or his true sex.
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[edit] Pat's Sex
Sweeney recently admitted that Pat is probably a woman. This admission stems from a sketch with Harvey Keitel in which their two characters, both of dubious sexual provenance, share a kiss. Sweeney reflexively tilted her head to receive the kiss in the stereotypically feminine fashion, a move that was not noticed at the time but was brought to her attention a couple of years later. Sweeney says she normally paid close attention to such details in her performances as Pat and was disappointed that she had made this mistake. Although a slip of acting does not necessarily define Pat's sex, Sweeney nevertheless accepted that this made Pat a woman.
In the SNL episode starring Linda Hamilton, 16 November 1991, a few people are able to learn the truth about Pat's sex. In a sketch set at a gymnasium, the showers there are separated by sex, forcing Pat to choose one or the other; when Pat does, Hamilton and the other characters in the sketch learn Pat's sex. However, the audience is still left wondering, because while the characters in the sketch were learning the truth, SNL cut to Nealon, from the "Weekend Update" desk, announcing the results of the Louisiana gubernatorial election between David Duke and Edwin Edwards. In the final Pat sketch to air on television, Keitel asks Pat directly what Pat's sex is. Just as Pat is about to reveal the truth, an audience member (played by Adam Sandler) suddenly stands up and screams at Pat not to tell, declaring that NBC will be bereft of comedy if Pat told, along with the departure of Cheers and David Letterman. Pat reluctantly agrees to this, and the question goes unanswered.
[edit] Trivia
- Pat was mentioned in the song Don't Pick It Up by The Offspring.
- Sweeney's mother appeared in the 1993 SNL Mother's Day special and said that Pat should wear some nice makeup and a more feminine hairstyle. In response, Sweeney pointed out that such things would of course be completely inappropriate for a character who is supposed to be indeterminate sex. (In that special, as each of the mothers of the cast members introduced herself, she named a sketch her child was in as her favorite, except Sweeney's mother, who delared Nat X, a monologue by Chris Rock, to be her favorite. Of course, this was a comic gag as Sweeney was the last one introduced.)
- In one SNL skit Pat's parent was revealed to be Frances/Francis, yet another androgyne.
- Database is a boy character in The Simpsons with striking similarities.[citation needed]
- In the episode "Lady Hawke" on The Critic, a joke was made on the It's Pat character where Pat is asked if Pat is a boy or a girl. Jeremy Hawke steps in and says, "She's a girl, mate. I saw her backstage." He proceeds to pull off Pat's wig, causing Julia Sweeney to whine "You ruined my whole career!!"
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- It's Pat at the Internet Movie Database
