Quentin Tarantino's Secret SNL Movie Disaster: The 0% Rotten Tomatoes Flop

Hey, let me tell you about one of the strangest footnotes in Quentin Tarantino’s career. I’ve been digging through old box-office disasters and uncredited script-doctoring jobs, and I found a doozy: Tarantino, the guy behind Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, helped rewrite the Saturday Night Live spinoff movie It’s Pat. Yes, that It’s Pat. The one with the 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. The one that made $60,822 on an $8 million budget. In 2026, it’s still wild to think about.

Before Pulp Fiction made him a god, Tarantino was a hungry screenwriter with a lot of opinions. He did an uncredited rewrite of Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide, and lots of its pop-culture references came from him. He wrote True Romance and From Dusk till Dawn. He also wrote the script that became Natural Born Killers, though he disowned that movie completely. But It’s Pat? He didn’t disown it. He actually loved the sketch.

The sketch starred Julia Sweeney as Pat, a plaid-shirt-wearing, androgynous character whose gender was the running gag. Every time someone tried to find out, the sketch ended without an answer. Today the joke doesn’t hold up, but in the early ’90s, Tarantino was a fan.

By 1993, the movie had gone through several rewrites. Then Tarantino turned in his own pass. Variety reported at the time that producers used his rewrite to try to get the movie launched. His big contribution? A stalker who relentlessly pursues Pat. That’s right: the man who gave us Jules Winnfield and Hans Landa introduced a stalker plot device to an SNL gender-gag comedy.

Here’s the damage report:

Adam Bernstein directed It’s Pat. The final script credits Julia Sweeney, Jim Emerson, and Stephen Hibbert. Tarantino’s rewrite went uncredited, just like his work on Crimson Tide. In this case, uncredited might have been a blessing in disguise.

Fox had no faith in the movie. They dumped it in only 33 theaters in Seattle, Spokane, and Houston. Seven months later, it went to home video. Critics were brutal. Variety called it 'unfunny.' The Los Angeles Times said the film had a great message, but 'its telling is truly terrible.' Not even Tarantino could save it.

Here’s the sad part: Tarantino genuinely loved Pat. In a 1994 Playboy interview, he explained why. He said the androgyny was only part of Pat’s appeal. What he loved was that Pat was 'so fu---ng obnoxious.' He also said he had no idea what gender Pat was, but he wanted Pat to be 'a girl.' He pointed to a sketch where Pat kissed guest host Harvey Keitel. 'Pat didn’t kiss like a guy,' Tarantino said. 'Pat kissed like a girl.'

The movie kept the gender secret all the way to the end. Dave Foley played Chris, another sexually mysterious character, and Pat marries Chris in the finale. At one point, both characters have their genitalia exposed, but the audience never sees anything. The film bends over backwards to avoid answering the one question the sketch was built on.

And that might be the real problem. Tarantino loved that Pat was obnoxious, but obnoxious was never supposed to be the point. The sketch was about how unimportant gender is and how the only thing that matters is being comfortable in your own skin. Turning that into a broad comedy with a stalker and a marriage plot missed the mark.

Looking at Tarantino’s filmography, it makes sense that he mostly avoided comedy. His humor is dark, risky, and button-pushing. It works in crime dramas like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, The Hateful Eight, and Django Unchained. But that humor is there to ease tension, not to carry a whole comedy. Broad comedy is a different muscle, and It’s Pat shows he didn’t have it then.

In 2026, Tarantino is still celebrated as one of Hollywood’s best directors and screenwriters. He has seven Oscar nominations and two wins, both for screenwriting. But every legend has a weird credit hiding in the closet. For Tarantino, that credit is an uncredited rewrite of a 0% Rotten Tomatoes SNL movie. It’s a reminder that even geniuses can swing and miss, especially when they’re trying to save a sketch that was already running on fumes.

Would I recommend It’s Pat? Only if you’re a completionist, a Tarantino archaeologist, or someone who enjoys cinematic train wrecks. 🎬💥 Otherwise, stick with Pulp Fiction. The dialogue is better, the stalker is scarier, and nobody has to guess anyone’s gender for 90 minutes.

Sources: Variety, Los Angeles Times, Playboy.