The Targum records the butler's long-delayed memory. There was with us a Hebrew youth, a servant of the chief executioner; and we recounted to him, and he explained the dream to us, to each man he explained the interpretation of his dream (Genesis 41:12).
Pseudo-Jonathan, redacted in the Land of Israel in the early common era, preserves the Sages' careful reading of every adjective the butler uses. A Hebrew — not an Egyptian, not a member of the court. A youth — not a grown minister. A servant — a slave, not even a free man. Of the chief executioner — attached to Potiphar's household, where the butler had first been confined.
Bereshit Rabbah 89 reads this list as a triple insult. The butler, having been rescued and restored to his office, now describes his rescuer in the terms least likely to flatter him. He could have said a man of astonishing insight. He says a Hebrew youth, a slave. The Sages teach that this is the posture of the ungrateful. He remembers Joseph only when forced to, and even then, only in the categories Pharaoh's court will accept without trouble.
And yet — and this is the Targum's gentle point — heaven uses even this begrudging memory. The butler's reluctance does not change the outcome. He mentions Joseph. That is all the story required. Providence does not wait for pure gratitude; it works through the thin gratitude we actually have.
Notice too the accuracy of what the butler says happened: to each man he explained the interpretation of his dream. Joseph had read both — the good and the bad. Even the baker's execution is implicitly vouched for here. The butler is testifying, in front of Pharaoh, that this interpreter tells the truth regardless of the outcome. For a king unsettled by dreams of famine that is exactly the witness needed: someone who will not soften the reading.
The takeaway has two edges. If you are the one waiting to be remembered, the tradition teaches, you cannot control the generosity of the person who eventually names you. Heaven uses their partial memory as efficiently as their full memory would have served. And if you are the one remembering — the butler, in any of us — the Sages' read is a warning. Name the people who helped you with the dignity they earned, not the dignity your audience is comfortable with.