Saturday Night Live is one of the most important comedy institutions in American history. This sounds ridiculous to say these days, but really think about it, think about how many of the best and brightest comedic actors (and Chevy Chase) got their big start on SNL. Even today, it still manages to eke out a few laughs here and there, but frankly with a legacy like the one it has it can just coast by on that forever without even having to try. But despite the success the show has had at launching careers, it hasn’t had that same level of quality with turning some of their most beloved skits into movies.
Sure, there’s The Blues Brothers, an all time comedy classic, and there’s stuff like Wayne’s World or the cult classics MacGruber and A Night at the Roxbury, but generally speaking poor critical reception is what these films get. But even among those there is one film adapting a character from SNL that is looked upon with scorn far more than any other, and It’s Pat.
The film is based on the sketches starring Julia Sweeney in which the joke is that no one can tell what gender Pat is. That’s it. That is the premise for the skits, and this is what they thought could be turned into a full-length movie. With a budget of $8 million, a cast of talented actors, and uncredited rewrites from Sweeney’s buddy Quentin Tarantino (which becomes apparent when not ten minutes in we get to see Kathy Griffin’s bare feet), perhaps this film had a shot at turning its one joke into an impressive work of comedic gold. Unfortunately, Touchstone didn’t seem to think that was the case because they gave the film a limited release before almost immediately pulling it, with a gross of a little over $60,000 and scathing reviews being all this film got.
Acclaimed music video director Adam Bernstein’s attempt to become a filmmaker failed hard, but thankfully he’s bounced back and worked on some of the best TV shows ever such as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, so it’s not an entirely unhappy ending. Films based on SNL characters, on the other hand, did not come out unscathed, as everything in the wake of It’s Pat was met with derision. But come on! It’s Pat! Can it really be that bad? Right?
Right????
THE GOOD
I do like some of the celebrities here. Kathy Griffin has a nice supporting role, Arleen Sorkin has a cameo and she’s always a delight to see... Ween show up, and who doesn’t like Ween? I feel like this film would have been a perfect opportunity to play “Waving My Dick in the Wind” if only they had the foresight to record three years earlier than they actually did.
By far the best part of the movie is Dave Foley as Pat’s equally ambiguous partner Chris. Chris is just adorable, someone way too good for Pat, a pleasant and supportive voice in their life that they do not deserve at all. And I gotta say, Foley looks pretty damn fine as a person of ambiguous gender.
THE BAD
So, going onto TVTropes when the movie was over, I decided to see some of the YMMV tropes and bore witness to this gem:
And you know, normally I don’t want to use audience reaction stuff as a point of criticism because it’s outside the scope of the movie, but… HUH???? The only likable character is the deranged, obsessive stalker who makes it his life’s mission to find out what’s in Pat’s pants to the point he destroys his marriage and starts dressing as Pat and who also steals Pat’s diary, tries to make them strip naked multiple times, barges in on them in the bathroom, and essentially sexually harasses them is somehow more likable than Chris, the incredibly cute and sweet love interest of the title character? Charles Rocket’s performance is fantastic and all, but he’s the exact kind of person I log onto Twitter and see trans people talking about being afraid of. He’s like JKR, Graham Linehan, and some random Karen at the bar’s bathroom all rolled into one, and this would make him an engaging character in a better movie—but this is It’s Pat. We’re supposed to laugh at his absurd, deranged obsession that drives him to madness but it might be the aspect of the film that aged the worse because he’s just too real of a character nowadays.
But this movie has a far bigger problem, something that absolutely sinks it. You wanna know what it is? It’s Pat!
Pat is a thoroughly unpleasant, miserable, and insufferable piece of shit. They might actually be one of the single most obnoxious protagonists ever put to film. As repulsive as his behavior is, I can almost see why someone would root for Kyle over Pat because Pat is just the fucking worst human being imaginable. They’re cruel to potential Valentine’s as a child, are apocalyptically bad at every job they have, emotionally abuse Chris through their relationship, treat everyone around them like garbage, are utterly incapable of self-reflection, and at one point even convince a guy to kill himself out of sheer apathy and irritation. There is literally nothing redeeming about Pat, and while they do suffer at Kyle’s hands and have numerous setbacks, they are so far up their own ass that they either don’t realize or don’t care. This is the kind of thing that works better in a shorter format like, say, a skit on a TV show that airs live from New York every Saturday night, but stretching it out to 70 minutes is simply an agonizing concept. We all know someone who’s an arrogant cunt like Pat—we don’t need to spend more time than is absolutely necessary with them.
And of course, because Pat is like this it completely evaporates any opportunities for charm or humor. Very few jokes land, and the ones that do only barely land completely in spite of Pat. So what we have is a film with a horrible protagonist who sucks the joy out of every moment, jokes that do not land… Is there a point to this movie at all? Do they at least reveal what Pat’s gender is since this is the huge driving question of the plot and ostensibly why you would even bother to see a feature-length version of a skit based on that single joke?
Nope.
This completely and utterly unfunny one-joke premise doesn’t even land the goddamn punchline. This movie is one long joke that completely fizzles out, and one that never even bothers to make you laugh at any point in between. It is quite frankly one of the single most pointless and worthless cinematic experiences ever conceived.
IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?
Oh my god, yes. This movie is fucking awful.
It genuinely baffles me this ever got as far as it did. Like, at no point in the development of this thing someone said “Hey, this is pretty bad, maybe we shouldn’t release this.” That is just insane to me. This is so clearly one of the most terrible ideas for a film I’ve ever seen, just a colossal waste of time; how did anyone even see money in this idea? It is a one-not premise stretched out to 70 minutes and it doesn’t even have enough plot to fill out that runtime, it raises a question that drives the film and never answers it, the main character is one of the most unpleasant beings in cinematic history… all of this is just so blatant, and yet everyone still allowed this to go all the way through and release however briefly in theaters.
I don’t think there could possibly be an SNL film worse than this. Like, it just isn’t possible. The fact that they do not even bother to reveal Pat’s gender, literally the only reason anyone would even give a single flying fuck about a cinematic Pat experience, makes this an actual waste of time. I watched this movie for free online and I still want my money back. My buddy Huyh has always said that the worst movies of all are bad comedies, and I’ve tried really hard to disprove that with all the shitty movies I watch—but no, time and time again he is vindicated because perhaps the single most agonizing thing a film can do is try and be funny but fail at it. At least other shit movies like Lucy or Artemis Fowl can get a chuckle out of me from their sheer lack of quality; how can I laugh at anything here, when the movie is falling flat on its face trying to get me to do just that?
Don’t watch this. It’s horribly unfunny, tortuously unpleasant, insanely transphobic, and just all around fucking awful. Unless you’re a freak like me who watches bad movies at the whims of equally freaky followers or just want to get the full scope of the SNL film canon there is literally no reason to waste your life on this. Genuinely anything is a better use of your time.
And I wasn't kidding, eight minutes and forty seconds is all it takes for Tarantino to shine through.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- Episode 2 -- Aired October 2, 1993 -- Pictured: Mike Myers as Jack, Shannen Doherty as Sheila, Chris Farley as Scott, Tim Meadows as counnselor, Julia Sweeney as mother, Phil Hartman as father during "The Relapse Guy" skit.
(Photo by Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- Episode 2 -- Aired October 2, 1993 -- Pictured: Mike Myers, Melanie Hutsell as players, Phil Hartman as host Dean Frederick Whitcomb, Shannen Doherty as Ariel Helpern-Strauss, Chris Farley as Mark Strobel, Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows as players during "Is it Date Rape" skit.
(Photo by Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Matt Foley: Van Down By The River, starring a father (Phil Hartman) who responds to his kids' delinquency by hiring a motivational speaker (Chris Farley).
