If you were around in the mid-90s, you probably remember the specific brand of chaos that was It's Pat. Honestly, the Pat the movie trailer is a fascinating time capsule of an era where Hollywood wasn't quite sure how to turn a three-minute sketch into a ninety-minute feature film. It’s weird. It’s abrasive. It’s arguably one of the most polarizing artifacts of Saturday Night Live’s cinematic history.
Looking back at that original teaser, you can see the exact moment where the joke starts to wear thin for a mainstream audience. Julia Sweeney’s character was a hit on TV because of the brevity. You show up, you guess the gender, you leave. But when the trailer hit theaters in 1994, it had to sell a narrative. It had to make Pat a person.
The 90s Marketing Gamble
The trailer relies heavily on the "androgyny" gag, which, let's be real, has aged like milk in a hot car. It opens with the classic upbeat, slightly frantic music typical of 90s comedies. You’ve got the high-pitched voice, the curly hair, and the sweater vest. The trailer tries to frame Pat as a lovable loser, a sort of gender-neutral Forrest Gump, but without the heart.
Touchstone Pictures was behind this. They were a Disney subsidiary. Think about that for a second. The same powerhouse that gave us The Lion King that same year was also trying to convince us that a movie about a person whose entire personality is being "indeterminable" was the next big comedy blockbuster. It didn't work. The trailer struggled to land jokes because the punchline was always the same.
Why the Trailer Failed to Sell the Film
Most movie trailers follow a three-act structure. You establish the hero, you introduce the conflict, and you show the "big" moments. The Pat the movie trailer just gives you a series of awkward encounters. There’s the bit with the post office. There’s the bit with the gym. There’s the meeting with Chris Farley—who, by the way, is probably the only reason anyone still watches clips of this today.
Farley plays a guy who becomes obsessed with Pat. It’s a strange, manic performance that feels like it belongs in a different, better movie. In the trailer, their chemistry is marketed as a wacky romance, but it comes off as unsettling.
It’s worth noting that the film has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That is hard to achieve. You have to actively try to be that poorly received. The trailer is essentially a warning sign in retrospect. It shows a film that is fundamentally one-note. When you watch it now, you realize they put every single "is it a man or a woman" joke into those two minutes, leaving absolutely nothing for the actual movie.
Behind the Scenes Chaos
People forget that Quentin Tarantino actually did an uncredited rewrite on this script. Yeah, the guy who made Pulp Fiction. He was friends with Julia Sweeney. He reportedly loved the character. But even the guy who redefined 90s cinema couldn't save the structural mess that the trailer hints at.
The production was a bit of a nightmare. It was filmed in early 1993, but it sat on a shelf for a long time. When a studio hides a movie, the trailer usually feels desperate. You can smell the desperation in this one. They use every sound effect in the book—slide whistles, boing noises, the works—to signal to the audience that they should be laughing.
The Cultural Shift
If a Pat the movie trailer dropped today, the internet would melt. The concept of the "androgynous joke" is so far removed from our current cultural understanding of gender that the movie feels like it’s from another planet. In 1994, it was just seen as a failed SNL spin-off. Today, it’s a case study in how comedy evolves—or fails to.
The trailer also features Dave Foley and Kathy Najimy. These are talented people! Najimy was coming off Hocus Pocus and Sister Act. Foley was a king of Canadian sketch comedy with Kids in the Hall. The fact that they are all in this trailer, looking slightly confused about their own presence, is a testament to the "SNL Movie Gold Rush" of the 90s. Everyone wanted the next Wayne’s World. Nobody got it.
The Visual Aesthetic of 1994
The color palette of the trailer is very "early 90s pastel." It’s bright, it’s flat, and it looks like a TV movie. This was a common problem for SNL films. They often didn't have the cinematic "heft" of real features. When you watch the trailer for The Blues Brothers, it looks like an epic. When you watch the trailer for It's Pat, it looks like a long episode of a sitcom that was canceled after three weeks.
Practical Insights for Movie Buffs
If you are a student of film or just someone who loves 90s nostalgia, watching the Pat the movie trailer is actually a great lesson in what not to do.
- Avoid the One-Note Gag: If your entire trailer is built on a single question that doesn't get answered, the audience will get frustrated, not intrigued.
- Watch the Supporting Cast: Pay attention to how the trailer uses Chris Farley. It’s a textbook example of using a "rising star" to bolster a weak premise.
- Study the Sound Design: Notice the "wacky" foley work. It’s a hallmark of 90s comedies that didn't trust the dialogue to be funny on its own.
Honestly, the best way to experience this is to find the trailer on YouTube, watch it once, and then go watch Julia Sweeney’s later monologue work like God Said Ha!. It’s a reminder that great performers can survive terrible marketing and even worse movies.
To understand the trajectory of 90s comedy, you have to look at the failures as much as the successes. Pat wasn't just a flop; it was a signal that the SNL "character movie" formula was starting to break. It paved the way for more narrative-driven comedies later in the decade. If you're looking for the trailer today, it's mostly shared as a "can you believe this exists?" artifact. And honestly, that's exactly what it is.
Go check out the original teaser and pay attention to the editing cuts. They are incredibly fast, trying to create energy where there is none. It's a masterclass in trying to save a project in the edit suite. After you've seen it, compare it to the trailer for Wayne's World or even Stuart Saves His Family. You'll see the clear difference between a character that has "legs" and a character that was meant to stay in a three-minute sketch.
The next time you see a movie trailer that feels like it’s trying too hard, just remember Pat. It’s the gold standard for "trying too hard." It’s a piece of history, for better or worse. Mostly worse. But still worth a look.