YMMV / It's Pat!

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Pat and Chris, who are either lesbian, bisexual or pansexual, and/or transgender, nonbinary or genderfluid.
  • Also, Pat's stalker Kyle who comes off as quite homophobic, a Heteronormative Crusader and Armoured Closet Gay.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: It turns out Pat was a character audiences enjoyed only in small doses; having to endure Pat's obnoxious antics for more than an hour, along with its questionable transgender-based humor ensured it a quick death at the box office.
• Award Snub: Hilariously, this movie was pretty bad, but not bad enough to win the five Razzies it was nominated for, losing them all to Showgirls.
• Designated Hero: The movie really doesn't give much of a reason to see past Pat's obnoxious habits and lack of empathy for anyone.
• Fridge Brilliance: In the sketches, Pat often talks about Chris (whenever they are broken up) as if Chris is a horrible person, but here, Chris has a real pleasant and reasonable personality. Perhaps the movie made the character a lot nicer, or, considering how obnoxious and oblivious Pat is, perhaps Pat just thinks Chris is that way, particularly if they have a conflict like a break-up.
• Genre Turning Point: Not exactly a positive one. While the previous Saturday Night Live-based movies had taken gag characters and developed them into ones who could sustain a a feature-length story, this was considered the first to just be one joke stretched out to ninety minutes. All following SNL movies have been doomed to the same status and received equally negative reviews. This bit Stuart Saves His Family in the ass, because people expected it to be one long comedy about Daily Affirmations — and the first 20 minutes didn't dissuade that assumption.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In 1994, a man obsessing to a literally insane degree over what gender a person is, up to and including wanting to know what private parts they had, was seen as absurd. Now it's recognized as a regular living nightmare for transgender people (not always to the extent of what Kyle does, but otherwise an uncomfortable reminder of how the rest of the world sees them).
• Ho Yay:
  • Pat's interactions with Kathy Griffin would be that if Pat were in fact a woman.
  • Also, Kyle's stalker obsession with Pat and his attempting to find out Pat's gender, assuming if Pat were a man. Complete with a creepy looking Pat doll.
• Moment of Awesome: Pat getting asked point blank about being either a man or a woman by a Scary Black Man. The mystery still isn't revealed, it's satisfying to see someone finally have the guts to ask.
• Nausea Fuel: Pat, for some reason, has a perpetual runny nose for the entire movie and at one point sneezes on a man's food, covering it in snot, before serving it to him.
• Strawman Has a Point: Granted, we're not supposed to be on Pat's side, but there are a few straight examples of this. For example, Chris is understandably bothered by Pat's inability to hold down a job and Pat's boss at the postal service fires Pat for the very real federal offense of opening other people's mail.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Charles Rocket is the only actor in the film committing and plays Kyle deadly straight. He genuinely looks like someone going insane from obsession and would be a much more compelling villain in a better movie.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Pat, due to their Ambiguous Gender, is sometimes headcanoned as some form of trans (either nonbinary, genderfluid, a trans man, or a closeted trans woman), partially because of the possible Disguised in Drag arc of the story.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Julia Sweeny once said in an interview that part of the point of the character was that everybody knows somebody as annoying as Pat, with gender having nothing to do with how annoying they are. That said, anyone this annoying and insensitive is a lot easier to find entertaining in a five minute sketch than for 90 minutes.
• Values Dissonance: In an age of greater visibility for transgender or androgynous people, an unintentionally abrasive character like Pat might as well be considered insensitive. Julia Sweeney appeared As Herself in the Showtime series Work in Progress, which confronts this head-on as the main character (a cisgender Butch Lesbian) had been bullied as a youth over her resemblance to Pat.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: A weird example with Chris. Unlike Pat, whose gender is completely indeterminable, Chris just looks like either a slightly masculine trans woman or a highly feminine cis man. It doesn't help that Chris is played by Dave Foley, who frequently plays women (and is generally considered to be a lot better looking when doing so).