Yassified Shakespeare

Abstract

This essay theorizes the concept of “Yassified Shakespeare.” To “yassify” something is to “glamify” it — generally by running it through multiple digital filters and simultaneously making it queerer in the process. Yassification is about excess: the more ridiculous the yassification, the funnier and more effective it is. Accordingly, yassified Shakespeare is a genre of Millennial and post-Millennial appropriation of Shakespeare’s name, persona, and/or work that queers itself in the process of adaptation and remixes Shakespeare’s cultural capital with a sexy, genre-specific, hyper-contemporary aesthetic. This essay considers how yassified Shakespeare materializes in the musicals Something Rotten! and & Juliet, in RuPaul’s Drag Race, at Renaissance Faires, and on TikTok.