This term began to appear after the
December 2021 viral
Reddit post "AITA for “perpetuating ethnic stereotypes” about Jorts?" on r/AmITheAsshole by u/ThrowawayOrangeCat about a conflict involving two
cats at their workplace. The cats are named Jean and Jorts, and to cut a long story
short, a human colleague named Pam had been spreading margarine on Jorts to encourage him to groom himself. (Presumably he would like the taste and spend more time licking it off.) It's unclear whether Jorts responded to this, because Jean began to
lick his fur -- this upset her digestive system. Pam was asked to stop applying margarine to Jorts. Readers shared the post to social media, and
people began posting memes and jokes about the situation.
Later that month, #DisabilityTwitter used the situation as an analogy, to address whether a particular accommodation is useful. (Implied: even if it's well-intentioned, if it's not helpful to the person with needs, it wastes time and may actually have negative impacts. Just like applying margarine to Jorts.)
"Are you helping, or are you
just buttering the cat?" (from #DisabilityTwitter)
A person may want to help resolve a
difficult situation, but realizes that they lack the necessary skills and would
just make things worse: "I'd love to help, but at this point I suspect I'd just be buttering the cat ..."
