Pat (fictional character)
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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. Sweeney wore no makeup and colored her lips beige to further hide any gender cues. The sketches always involved the celebrity guest host of the show going to great lengths to discover Pat's true gender without actually asking.
The character was popular enough to spawn a feature length film called It's Pat (from the lyrics of the character's theme song on Saturday Night Live) in which Pat's full name was revealed to be Pat Riley. In the film, Pat breaks up with his or her significant other, Chris, another sexually ambiguous character played by Dave Foley. Pat spends the entire film trying to win Chris back, all the while becoming an object of obsession of a neighbor (Charles Rocket). Pat also has a brief rock and roll career in the film and plays with the band Ween. The film was a commercial and critical bomb.
Sweeney also helped co-author a book to coincide with the film's release, entitled "It's Pat: My Life Exposed."
Pat's gender
Sweeney recently admitted that Pat is a woman. This admission stems from a skit 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 it was the only such "tell" of which she was aware, she nevertheless accepted that this made Pat a woman.