JACKSONVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 30: Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles (5) throws a pass during the game between the New York Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 30, 2018 at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In case you were wondering, The Good Place is more than aware of how its Jacksonville Jaguars jokes somehow lined up with that team becoming good.

This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of The Good Place.

This still might be the weirdest yet most wonderful case of life imitating art yet.

Through the first two seasons of NBC’s The Good Place, the show began and sustained a running joke about Jason Mendoza’s devotion to his hometown football team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and its then-hapless quarterback Blake Bortles. It was funny because Jason was dumb and the Jaguars were really bad at football.

Well, Jason is still an idiot, but the Jaguars (and, arguably, Bortles) are now actually really good! Not only were they tantalizingly close to making the Super Bowl last year, but they’ve started out the 2018-19 season 3-1 and still appear to have the most fearsome defense in football. Also, Bortles is slowly earning a reputation as a respectable NFL quarterback.

It only took two weeks for The Good Place‘s third season to make a meta joke about how Jason’s dedication to his favorite team dovetailed with the Jaguars’ resurgence. And of course, this being The Good Place, it was forking hilarious.

At the end of the episode, Michael, Janet and Ben Wyatt…sorry, Trevor the Demon are called away from Earth by Maya Rudolph’s Judge Gen. She’s angry that Michael and Janet visited the Brainy Bunch (so good) multiple times without her permission.

After flicking Trevor away, she explains that their actions have caused ripple effects throughout the planet. England has left the European Union, The Greatest Showman was a box-office success and, oh yeah: “Also, the Jacksonville Jaguars, are good now!”

“Impossible!” Michael responds incredulously.

“I’m serious!” The Judge responds. “They’re gonna make the playoffs! Blake Bortles is kinda okay maybe? I don’t know, it’s being debated amongst experts. It’s confusing.”

You won’t find a better summary of NFL fans’ confusion over both Jacksonville and Bortles being good than that.

Jaguars fans clearly have The Good Place on their radar now, as they were quick to comment on this acknowledgement of the connection this show and their team will share as long as Jason Mendoza is around.

They're good now. #TheGoodPlace https://t.co/tG5Qbjahxt — The Good Place Is Back On Our Bullshirt (@nbcthegoodplace) October 5, 2018

This was the first direct response from the show to the fact its cute inside joke has blossomed into something real. The closest it had come before was Jason actor Manny Jacinto leaning into the bit on Twitter during their 2017-18 postseason run.

In previous seasons, the Jaguars were used mostly as a punchline to hammer home just how stupid Jason is. His afterlife test with The Judge was summoning the mental fortitude to play against and beat the Jaguars in Madden, and he literally once threw a Molotov cocktail while shouting, “Bortles!”

Heck, Jason once asked Michael if the Jaguars would ever win the Super Bowl, to which he responded with a sneering laugh, “Jason, I can’t predict the future. But no, they won’t.”

That joke between Michael and the Judge was probably creator Mike Schur’s way of apologizing for dismissing the Jaguars’ potential fortunes. If the Judge is aware of their success, Jason back on Earth must be perpetually in his own personal good place.