Mad Libs
Encyclopedia
Phrasal template
A phrasal template is a phrase-long collocation that contains one or several empty slots which may be filled by words to produce individual phrases. Often there are some restrictions on the grammatic category of the words allowed to fill particular slots...
word game
Word game
Word games and puzzles are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well...
where one player prompts another for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, usually with funny results. The game is especially popular with American children and is frequently played as a party game
Party game
Party games are games that some people play as forms of entertainment at social gatherings. Party games usually involve more than one player. There are a large number and styles of party games available and the one selected will depend on the atmosphere that is sought to be generated...
or as a pastime.
Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by Leonard Stern
Leonard B. Stern
Leonard Bernard Stern was an American screenwriter, film and television producer, director, and one of the creators, with Roger Price, of the classic word game Mad Libs.-Life and career:...
and Roger Price
Roger Price (comedy)
Roger Price was an American humorist, author and publisher, who created Droodles in the 1950s, followed by his collaborations with Leonard Stern on the Mad Libs series...
, who published the first Mad Libs book themselves in 1958. It resembles the earlier games of Consequences and Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite Corpse
Exquisite corpse is a surrealist technique, but may also refer to:Literature* Exquisite Corpse , edited by Andrei Codrescu* Exquisite Corpse , a 1996 novel by Poppy Z...
. Mad Libs books are still published by Price Stern Sloan
Price Stern Sloan
Price Stern Sloan or PSS! is a publisher that was founded in Los Angeles in the early 1960s to publish the Mad Libs that Roger Price and Leonard Stern had concocted during their stint as writers for Steve Allen's Tonight Show and also the Droodles...
, an imprint of Penguin Group
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...
, cofounded by Price and Stern.
Format
Mad Libs consist of a book that has a short storyShort story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
on each page with many key words replaced with blanks. Beneath each blank is specified a lexical
Lexical category
In grammar, a part of speech is a linguistic category of words , which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others...
or other category, such as "noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
", "verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
", "place", or "part of the body". One player asks the other players, in turn, to contribute some word for the specified type for each blank, but without revealing the context for that word. Finally, the completed story is read aloud. The result is usually comic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and somewhat nonsensical
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
.
Stern and Price's original Mad Libs book gives the following sentence as an example:
"_____________! he said ________ as he jumped into his convertible
exclamation adverb
______ and drove off with his __________ wife."
noun adjective
After completion, they demonstrate that the sentence might read:
"Ouch! he said stupidly as he jumped into his convertible
cat and drove off with his brave wife."
Books
- The Original Mad Libs 1 (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-0055-9
- Cool Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-7660-1
- Mad Mad MadLibs) - ISBN 0-8431-7441-2
- Worst Case Scenario Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-0298-5
- Napoleon Dynamite Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-2011-8
- Goofy Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-0059-1
- Vacation Fun Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-1921-7
- Off-The-Wall Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-0108-3
- Mama's Got A Brand New (Diaper) Bag! (Adult Mad Libs) - ISBN 1-59609-202-5
- Dysfunctional Family Therapy (Mad Libs) - ISBN 1-59609-181-9
- Night of the Living Mad Libs (Mad Libs)-ISBN 0-590-48468-0
- Once Upon A Mad Libs Junior (Mad Libs Junior) - ISBN 0-8431-0768-5
- Mad Libs 40th Anniversary Edition (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-7823-X
- Super Silly Mad Libs Junior (Mad Libs Junior) - ISBN 0-8431-0758-8
- Sports Star Mad Libs Junior (Mad Libs Junior) - ISBN 0-8431-0770-7
- School Rules! Mad Libs Junior (Mad Libs Junior) - ISBN 0-8431-0853-3
- Bachlorette Bash (Mad Libs) - ISBN 1-59609-178-9
- Animals, Animals, Animals! Mad Libs Junior (Mad Libs Junior) - ISBN 0-8431-0951-3
- Keepers and Losers Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 1-59609-150-9
- Mad Libs from Outer Space (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-2443-1
- Camp Daze Mad Libs (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-8431-2239-0
- Mad Libs for President (Mad Libs) - ISBN 0-439-69679-8
- Scooby-Doo Halloween Mad Libs Hanna-BarberaHanna-BarberaHanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
- The Powerpuff Girls Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-7738-1
- Family Guy Mad Libs
- American Dad Mad Libs
- Mad Libs on the Road
- Star Wars Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-3271-X
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-3357-0
- Operation(TM) Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-2090-8
- Primetime Mad Libs
- Night of the Living Mad Libs
- Kid Libs Mad Libs
- Grab Bag Mad Libs
- Indiana Jones Mad Libs
- Club Penguin Mad Libs
- How To Train Your Dragon Mad Libs
- Fear Factor Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-0664-6
- Fear Factor Mad Libs: Ultimate Grossout! - ISBN 0-8431-1157-7
- The Penguins of Madagascar Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-9816-8
Other media
A game show called Mad LibsMad Libs (game show)
Mad Libs was a children's game show based on the book/word game series. It aired on the Disney Channel from July 1998 to mid-1999 , and was hosted by David Sidoni. Dick Clark and J. D...
, with some connections to the game, aired on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
in 1998 and 1999.
Several imitations of Mad Libs have been created, most of them on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Imitation Mad Libs are sometimes used in educational settings to help teach the parts of speech
See also
- SnowcloneSnowcloneA snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"....
- Phrasal templatePhrasal templateA phrasal template is a phrase-long collocation that contains one or several empty slots which may be filled by words to produce individual phrases. Often there are some restrictions on the grammatic category of the words allowed to fill particular slots...
- Cloze testCloze testA cloze test is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed , where the participant is asked to replace the missing words. Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct words or type of words...
- Consequences (game)
- Exquisite corpseExquisite corpseExquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original...