Cat Johnston’s ‘Gods of Minor Ailments’ Bless the Bedbound on National Sickie Day

National Sickie Day falls on the first Monday in February, the day when more workers than usual call in sick. Whether it’s a genuine cold, a hangover or just the desire to stay under the duvet, it’s a moment that quietly acknowledges a universal truth: sometimes you’re simply not up to it.

If you were already eyeing the duvet, making a cup of tea you don’t immediately drink, and staring blankly at the ceiling, you have our permission.

​Cat Johnston’s new short, The Gods of Minor Ailments, feels like the perfect companion for that mood. It takes life’s smallest, most irritating afflictions and turns them into something almost divine, in Cat’s wry, painfully human style.

“The Gods of Minor Ailments is an idea I’ve been kicking around for a few years now,” says Cat. “This little film acts as a mini intro to just a few of them. They are rubbish versions of pagan deities, a little B team, painfully human and flawed.”

The project draws on the overlap between religion and superstition, from patron saints of lost things to remedies for bad eyesight and bruised knees. Cat’s gods are mascots for the afflicted while also suffering from the very thing they represent.

“These ‘gods’ are both mascots of the afflicted, but are themselves afflicted by what they represent,” Cat explains. “They are gods for our time, not lofty or dignified or powerful, but awkwardly suffering and painfully relatable. They are us.”

Originally conceived as sculptures for an exhibition, the characters were later animated, even though their paper-and-handmade construction actively resisted it.

“The characters were originally intended as sculptures,” Cat says. “Made of annoyingly un-animation-friendly materials like paper, they were appropriately infuriating to animate, hence their slightly limited movements here.”

The restrained movement becomes part of their charm. Combined with careful lighting, a slightly strange soundscape, and a dry, disdainful voiceover, the film has a quietly surreal humour. Portrait-format versions with tarot-like borders act as Instagram-ready talismans, digital votive offerings for Those Who Suffer.

“The portrait version films serve as Instagram-ready talisman,” Cat says. “Digital votive offerings to be shared by Those Who Suffer.”

The Gods of Minor Ailments acknowledges the small ailments we all endure, and on National Sickie Day, it feels like the perfect excuse to take a moment for yourself. Stay under the duvet. The gods would approve.