Stardew Valley mod adds viral kitty stars Jean and Jorts as NPCs

Jean and Jorts are a pair of cats you may have heard of. They came to fame by way of an Am I The Asshole thread on Reddit about a minor workplace beef over two cats, one smart and one, well, not, that among other things involved one of the parties applying margarine to the dumb cat—Jorts—as a teaching aid. The very funny, oddly uplifting story quickly went viral: Jean and Jorts now have their own Twitter account with more than 144,000 followers, and recently appeared on CNN.

They are also now unofficial NPCs in Stardew Valley, courtesy of the Jorts and Jean the Helper Cats mod. “They are giftable, friendable, have a plethora of things to say, cross-compatible with many other custom NPCs, and feature two events tied to the Reddit AITA post that started it all,” the NexusMods description says. “If you follow JortsTheCat on Twitter, you'll also probably see some familiar lines too.”

The cats can be added to an in-progress game at any point, but won't start roaming around until after the Joja landslide is cleared out. Both Jean and Jorts are very pro-union and hate Joja products, although Jean is apparently the brains behind that stance, while Jorts is mostly “stuck in a trashcan.” They currently have two in-game events and a schedule that sees them roaming far and wide, although they stay inside at the Adventurer's Guild on rainy days, and yes, they speak: They “have a plethora of things to say,” according to the listing.

As mods go, this one seems just about perfect: Thematically on-point, timely, but not so completely hung on a single gag that it's going to wear out its welcome quickly. And the mod makers have more planned for the future, including additional events, visits to the resort, cross-compatibility with a larger number of other mods, and more cross-mod dialog and gift tastes.

Donation Points, a system that enables mod makers to monetize their work on NexusMods, is enabled for Jorts and Jean in order to raise funds for the United Farm Workers non-profit. “They are a union-like organization fighting for rights for farm workers, who are often excluded from basic protections, such as being guaranteed overtime pay,” Tiakall said. “This is a cause Jorts and his human are passionate about and I think it's what he'd do.”

I think so, too.