My top ten of Pat's shirts from Bad Buddy
10. Episode 5
This is the first of three shirts from this episode to make this list (the others are at no. 4 and 3) and it's not surprising really since Pat spends most of the episode gradually realising his feelings for Pran...and he figurately and literally wears his heart on his sleeve (or actually, his heart). This shirt appears towards the end, when he and Pran have co-ordinated colours - indicating they are moving closer to some kind of connection - both being in shades of blue and yellow/orange. The pièce de résistance, however, is the fully blossomed red/yellow flower over his heart signifying that Pat’s feelings for Pran have…well…fully blossomed.
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9. Episode 6
I had a difficult time deciding which shirts should be in these early spots (10/9) but this one just pipped the one at no. 10. It's seems very innocuous, un-interesting, un-important at first, but it's this subtlety that sets it a little apart -> Firstly, for a character who wears a lot of colour in general, it's very telling that this shirt is generally white - Pat wears it at a time when he's feeling troubled by the distance Pran has put between them after the rooftop kiss. And secondly, and this might be a reach, but Hilton Head (the grey print on the shirt) is a small island off the coast of South Carolina...so it could be symbolising how Pat feels disconnected, set apart, and detached from Pran. (Mentioned here)
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8. Episode 7
This is the first of two shirts in this episode to make this list (the other is no. 5) and one of the first times we see the colour brown up to this point (apart from on Pran's dad). At the end of the episode, Pat turns up at the theatre wearing this shirt with a face design to step in to play Riam - thus saving Pran the humiliation of grovelling to Chart (i.e. 'to save face') and instead choosing to sacrifice himself (hence the brown) by ‘losing’ the bet to Pran (even though he had already confessed).
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7. Episode 11
“An elephant never forgets.” -> A lot of episode 11 is about Pat and Pran running away from their lives...forgetting about their families, the lies they discovered, and the fear for their relationship once they go back. Pat also slowly realises that Pran is, and will always be, unable to forget his parents despite Pran being there for Pat and allowing Pat this moment of fantasy. They also spend much of the time at the beach not talking about any of this, avoiding the subject - i.e. the "elephant in the room" - instead distracting themselves with other things.
A bonus element with this shirt is the connection it has to the shirt at no. 6 in this list. Some people were wondering why "California” was used instead of the usual name of the store, “DM”, on the red t-shirt (below) - well maybe it's because Junior’s t-shirt in ep 11 - worn at the same time as Pat wears the elephant shirt - has “Malibu Beach California” on the front.
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6. Episode 10
@karometeenk has complete credit for the details about this one. First, the slogan is for a German drug store (we later see Pat and Pran get caught by Pat's parents in a supermarket) and it refers to a famous quote by Johann Wolfgang Goethe: "Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich's sein" which translates to "Here I am human, here I can/am allowed to be one". This quote is from his tragedy Faust, and in one scene Faust goes into a monologue on a walk about the beauty of nature and how he can only truly be himself there, where no one is around. This foreshadows episode 11, where Pat and Pran run away to the sea, to nature. They can only be true to themselves there, where no one around knows them.
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5. Episode 7
I absolutely adored the moment Pat turned up in the theatre with this t-shirt and shirt combination. First, he's wearing his own blue underneath Pran's rich burgundy red - in a direct reversal and development of the Picasso-esque t-shirt with the splodge of red over the heart which he wore under a blue shirt when he realised his feelings for Pran in ep 5 (no. 3 in this list). But the pièce de résistance is that the only two words visible on the t-shirt are "your man?" Pat wears this during a scene where he confesses to Pran, thus losing the bet. He asks Pran - as Riam - "You asked if I wanted to be friends? What if my answer is no?" Essentially, "Am I/can I be your man?" (Mentioned here).
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4. Episode 5
The second of the three shirts from this episode...and the only reason this one isn't higher up is because of how ridiculous it is for the poignancy of the scene. BUT that is also exactly why it IS on my list AND so high 😂 But, putting the ridiculous aside, the deep red and blue of Pat's pants and top beautifully illustrate the depth of his feelings for Pran and the fact that the word "Baseball" almost blends in with the blue behind it shows how close Pat and Pran are to becoming a couple, a union, themselves. Of course, the loudness of the "mom" in white can't be ignored and it perhaps symbolises the obstacle they face in being open with their eventual relationship and a big reason why Pran left Pat alone. (As written about here).
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3. Episode 5
It took me a while after the episode to realise that the t-shirt Pat wears during his wonderful Oh moment about his feelings for Pran has a splodge of red over his heart. Not only that, but he's wearing a blue shirt (his own colour) over the top which partially obscures the red - illustrating how his feelings for Pran existed under the surface but took a while to be revealed. Even here they weren't fully realised, out in the open. It was only after being jealous of Wai's closeness to Pran later in the ep that he really understood the hold Pran had on his heart.
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2. Episode 9
To be honest, it was a close call between this and the shirt in the no. 1 spot...but this one is well-deserving for second place. As I wrote about it here, this shirt has Pran's red, his own blue, and a bridge lit up with yellow lights (their love and happiness) on the print. It symbolises how Pat this episode is the bridge between the two faculties and more importantly between Pran and Wai. Not only that, the bridge itself is an iconic image of the power of collaboration between architecture and engineering.
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Before I get to no. 1, I want to give a special mention to some that didn't make the list: the green 'Lucky' t-shirt from ep 1; the Tim Horton's 'Smile cookie' t-shirt in ep 3; the tie-die t-shirt at the end of ep 6; and the smiley face t-shirt featured in ep 1 and finally worn in ep 12. All fantastic in their own little way.
Okay, on to no.1...
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1. Episode 4
Even eight episodes on, I still can't get over the genius of this shirt...but in fairness its brilliance shines best when Ink's and Pran's coinciding tops are also taken into account. As I gushed about it before, this shirt has two colours overlapping in the leaf design: One a light yellowy/greeny/cream and the other a light grey/blue. These are the two colours that Ink and Pran wear respectively in their scenes with Pat in the episode - indicating his divided affections for them, with one fading and the other growing. 👩🏽🍳💋
EDIT: For any new people finding this post, I made a revised version of my top ten list (found here) after I had analysed a few more of Pat's shirts and realised the order needed changing. Keeping this one for posterity though.












