Craving something different? A unique SNL movie streams on Peacock today

If you missed We Are Pat when it did the festival rounds last year, you can now catch it on Peacock as of 20 August 2026. Might sound niche: it's a documentary about that SNL character from the early '90s, Pat — the androgynous one Julia Sweeney played — and yes, they've gone deep on what that character means today.

IMDb currently lists We Are Pat with a 6.9/10 rating.

An SNL Relic Under the Microscope

So, what's the point of all this? Well, filmmaker Ro Haber, who grew up utterly fascinated (and a bit confused) by Pat, decided decades later — after coming out as transgender themselves — to really dig into what the character represented and how those old sketches have aged. In 2025, 35 years after Pat was first unleashed on Saturday Night Live, Haber took a critical, modern look at Pat, comedy, and pop culture's shifting attitudes around gender.

Haber ropes in Julia Sweeney herself, along with a line-up of queer and trans comedians and writers, to pull apart what was going on in those sketches, and — perhaps more interestingly — what they mean now that attitudes and visibility have changed in a big way since the Clinton era. The film doesn't just rake over the coals, mind. It's actively asking: How do jokes (and characters) hold up when the culture moves on? Is there room to reclaim or reinterpret the old punchlines that don't sit right anymore?

Here's the film's own preview, straight from the official website: "Beyond comedy, We Are Pat raises complex questions: How does art age? What responsibility does a creator have as cultural values evolve? Can we reclaim narratives that once mocked us, transforming pain into laughter, visibility, and ultimately, our own creations?"

Release Timeline and Critical Bits

• World Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival 2025 (where Haber netted a Special Jury Mention for New Documentary Director, if you're counting accolades)
• Digital Release: 23 June 2026
• Peacock Streaming Debut: 20 August 2026

In case you're not familiar (or too young), Pat wasn't just a one-off sketch — the character appeared repeatedly on SNL, with Pat's gender as the recurring joke. Haber's team doesn't shy away from the more awkward, even painful, cultural baggage. The doc is less about nostalgia and more about sifting through the mess for clarity — and maybe a way forward — with the creatives who care about it most. Sweeney joins the conversation onscreen, so it's not just an academic rehash.