Interviewing Seth Bykofsky, it’s a miracle I don’t pee myself from laughter — which would be appropriate, given our topic of discussion. This incredibly funny Jewish grandfather of four from Long Island has had a recent (toilet) brush with fame thanks to his excellent vanity license plate that doles out advice any parent will be familiar with: “PB4WEGO.”
Turns out the New York DMV wasn’t quite as big a fan of his helpful reminder.
Bykofsky returned home with his wife one day to find new license plates in the mail. According to the DMV (which, if you’ve ever stood in a DMV line, appears to actively encourage people to pee their pants), his vanity plate was “objectionable, according to their guidelines, because it says something that might be derogatory or inflammatory or promoting violence,” Bykofsky told Kveller over the phone.
The only violence he could envision the plate possibly eliciting was that of “toddlers all over the world, clamoring” in protest of being made to go to the potty.
And so began a single man’s crusade to restore his license plate, one that has made so many fellow roadsters smile and laugh throughout the years.
“The reaction from the public — and this is universal — is people will look at the plate, and they’ll figure it out, and then they’ll smile, grinning ear to ear,” Bykofsky said. “And that’s what it’s all about, trying to bring some light into the world. Isn’t this what we do as a Jewish people, even under the most adverse of conditions?”
On a mission to keep bringing joy and bathroom PSAs to the public, he took to social media to give the DMV a pishn of his mind, if you will. The story quickly made its way to local New York media and then to the New York Post, where it drew the attention of Governor Kathy Hochul.
“I got a call from Alex Mitchell, who was the writer of the article in the Post,” Bykofsky recounted. “He said, you’re going to get a call in a few minutes. I can’t give you any more information than that, but you’re going to be very excited.” (This particular writer feels Mitchell missed a golden opportunity to say “urine for a treat”). Bykofsky replied, “I’m so excited, I can hardly hold it in!”
A few minutes later, the governor called to personally let Bykofsky know that his plate would indeed be returned.
“My perspective on this, and I think we can add a little Jewish perspective,” Bykofsky tells me in the middle of what is now a very busy victorious press tour,”is the quiet power of persuasion and perseverance, which is what we as a Jewish people have always historically been known to do, right? You know, it’s we’re attacked, we fight back, we win, and then of course, we eat.”
“I’ve gotten the eating part down pat,” the grandfather, who is fond of sweet treats like babka, proudly declared.
When Bykofsky first got the funny license plate a few years ago, his family shook their head and laughed at the patriarch’s familiar antics. He’s who people call for some much-needed Jewish humor at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and even funerals. He calls himself the “clean up man,” saying he basically invented the Jewish dad joke. “Mel Brooks was, what, the 2000-year-old? I’m the 20,000-year-old Jewish man!” he muses. He wrote jokes about Noah for his synagogue’s bulletin (why did he have a son called Ham?!) and shared thoughts about Rashi with his cantor (“I imagined his mother yelling at him: ‘Rashi, you have a comment about everything!'”).
His two daughters and four grandchildren all love him and his humor. They also all pee before they go.
All except his 1-year-old grandchild, who just pees at all times, as one does at that age.
His grandsons all have two additional rules when it comes to the toilet (to avoid a toylet accident if you will): always lift up the seat, and pee in the bowl (rules that are impossible to follow for all young boys!).
Bykofsky is hoping his four grandchildren learn from this endeavor, too. “A lesson that I’d like my grandchildren to pick up: If you believe in something, stand up for it and fight for it and never give up, never give in. I think that was another great Jew who said that — wasn’t that Winston Churchill?”
Raised in a secular but fiercely activist Jewish household in New York City, Bykofsky also draws it back to his family’s history of political activism as active members of the Workmen’s Circle.
“It was a personal victory. It was a small but personal victory for the little guy. You know, our voices are too often drowned out, yes. But more importantly, to me, this was a victory for free speech, the First Amendment rights of freedom of expression, which you know, are being chipped away at constantly. So now we need to have a little comeback. And we did. And you know, shofar so good. That’ll be my next license plate.”
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