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 ..."
