There we were, a small desultory middle-aged group sitting around the seder table, nobody under 50. No kids, not even twenty-somethings, to liven the ceremonies or to impress with the meaning of the ritual, no deeply religious uncles to appease. BOR-ing! We get through the blessings for the wine, the Four Questions, the meaning of matzah, of maror (horseradish), of charoset, the dipping of the parsley symbolizing tears, as fast as decently possible. Just not into it were any of us, especially knowing the feast that awaited us once we declared this part over.
Then we came to the Ten Plagues, where the name of some nastiness is shouted out and our fingers dip into the wine and and drops of wine fly across the table at the name of the evil. Neither the traditional Ten Plagues (locusts, boils, cattle disease, etc.), nor the "modern" liberal version helpfully offered by our liberal Hagaddah (war, intolerance, economic exploitation, environmental degradation) seemed to hit the spot.
Finally, an inspired idea:
"Let's do Republicans!"
WALKER! Wine drops flew
BOEHNER! More drops
GINGRICH! BACHMANN! PALIN! BECK! ROMNEY! TRUMP! SNYDER! RYAN!
Some local nut I'd never heard of.
CANTOR! (that toad!)
Only well past 10 did someone think of
CHENEY!
W!
It made the evening.