Martin Bodek
he took every relevant Shakespeare
quote he could think of and wove it
into the Passover story, creating a
“fully-functioning Haggadah.”
“Shakespeare is certainly one of my
loves. I can speak Elizabethan English
on a dime if you wish me to. I’m not just
selling out, doing it on the cheap. I mean
it when I do it,” said Bodek, who quoted
from every one of Shakespeare’s 37
plays in his latest work.

This is Bodek’s fourth Haggadah
parody release, now tied in a friendly
competition with comedian Dave
Cowen for the world record. He said he
chose the book, which sets forth the
order of the Passover seder, because
“it’s the most flexible medium there is”
in Jewish text.

“Most other texts or documents
are very rigid. They should not be
changed or altered or messed with.

They’re sacrosanct,” said Bodek. “The
commandment that the Haggadah is
derived from is simply to remember the
exodus from Egypt to teach it to your
children. But it has inherent flexibility.”
he said. Bodek went on to create the
“Festivus Haggadah,” which is a fusion
of Seinfeld tropes. Then, the pandemic
hit, and Bodek wrote the “Coronavirus
Haggadah” as “a form of comic relief.”
He says his Shakespeare Haggadah
is drawing particular attention from
teenagers, which comes as no surprise
to Bodek. He said that people tend not
to pick up Shakespeare as a child or
later in life, but rather in high school
and college.

“The ‘Emoji Haggadah’ had a very
funny specific demographic. I learned
that 8- to 14-year-old girls love it the
most. And I’ve learned that Gen X loves
the ‘Festivus Haggadah.’ People love
the ‘Coronavirus Haggadah’ because it
spoke to everyone,” said Bodek. “But
the ‘Shakespeare Haggadah’ specifi-
cally targets teenagers, and I think that
teenagers are the least marketed-to
demographic, at least as far as this goes.”
Bodek says he has another two
Haggadah concepts in the works
already but is consulting with lawyers
to determine what he can do parody-
wise with some of the bigger pop-cul-
ture properties, including Disney and
Paramount. In the meantime, he’s enjoying the
early success of his Passover-related
endeavors and is expecting more sales
as the Jewish holiday approaches.

“The compliments that I get are that
my Haggadah brought someone’s kid
back to the table,” Bodek said. "And
that’s still the most meaningful thing to
hear because that’s pretty much what
I’m hoping to accomplish.” ■
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‘A form of comic relief’
Bodek notes that for hundreds of
years, Haggadahs were geared toward
adults and differed only in their inter-
pretations, sects or in how they were
transformed into works of art.

In 2017, he and his family were
dressed up as emojis for Purim when he
said he had a brainstorm and converted
a summary of the book of Esther into
emojis. He asked himself if it was possi-
ble to turn the concept into a full book.

“The ‘Emoji Haggadah’ was born,”
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