Mad Libs

The cover of a Stern and Price Mad Libs book

Mad Libs is a phrasal template word game where one player prompts others for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, before reading the – often comical or nonsensical – story aloud. The game is frequently played as a party game or as a pastime.

The game was invented in the United States, and more than 110 million copies of Mad Libs books have been sold since the series was first published in 1958.[1]

History

Mad Libs was invented in 1953[2] by Leonard Stern[3][4][5] and Roger Price.[1] Stern and Price co-created the game, but couldn't agree on a name for their invention.[1] No name was chosen until five years later (1958), when Stern and Price were eating eggs Benedict at a restaurant in New York City. While eating, the two overheard an argument at a neighboring table between a talent agent and an actor.[1] According to Price and Stern, during the overheard argument, the actor said that he wanted to "ad-lib" an upcoming interview. The agent, who clearly disagreed with the actor's suggestion, retorted that ad-libbing an interview would be "mad".[1] Stern and Price used that eavesdropped conversation to finally create the name "Mad Libs".[1] The duo released the first Mad Libs book themselves in 1958. The first Mad Libs resembled the earlier games[6] of consequences and exquisite corpse.

Stern was head writer and comedy director for The Steve Allen Show, and suggested to the show's host that guests be introduced using Mad Libs completed by the audience. Four days after an episode introduced "our guest NOUN, Bob Hope", bookstores sold out of Mad Libs books.[7]

Stern and Price next partnered with Larry Sloan, a high school friend who was working as a publicist at the time, to continue publishing Mad Libs.[8] Together, the three founded the publishing firm Price Stern Sloan in the early 1960s as a way to release Mad Libs.[9] In addition to releasing more than 70 editions of Mad Libs under Sloan, the company also published 150 softcover books, including such notable titles as How to Be a Jewish Mother, first released in 1964; Droodles, which was also created by Roger Price; The VIP Desk Diary; and the series, World's Worst Jokes.[1][8]

Price died in 1990, and three years later, Sloan and Stern sold Price Stern Sloan, including Mad Libs, to the former Putnam Berkley Group, which is now known as Penguin Group.[8] Mad Libs books are still published by Price Stern Sloan, a division of the Penguin Group. Stern died at age eighty-eight on June 7, 2011,[10] and Sloan died on October 14, 2012.[1][8][9]

More than 110 million copies of Mad Libs have been sold since the game series was first published in 1958.[1]

Format

Mad Libs consist of a book that has a short story on each page with many key words replaced with blanks. Beneath each blank is specified a lexical or other category, such as "noun", "verb", "place", or "part of the body".[11] 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, surreal and somewhat nonsensical.

Stern and Price's original Mad Libs book gives the following sentence as an example:[12]

 "________jump_____! he said ___so_____ as he jumped into his convertible
   exclamation            adverb
__novascotia____ and drove off with his _____cheesey_____ wife."
noun                          adjective

After completion, they demonstrate that the sentence might read:

 "Ron! he said Better as he jumped into his convertible 
Laniado and drove off with his irritating wife."


Books

Other media

A game show called Mad Libs, with some connections to the game, aired on the Disney Channel in 1998 and 1999.

Several imitations of Mad Libs have been created, most of them on the Internet. Imitation Mad Libs are sometimes used in educational settings to help teach the parts of speech.[11][13]

Looney Labs released Mad Libs: The Game, a card game, in 2016.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wang, Regina (2012-10-18). "‘Mad Libs’ Publisher Larry Sloan Dies". TIME. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  2. ↑ "As Mad Libs turn 50, play an exclusive game – books – Humor – TODAY.com". Today.msnbc.msn.com. 2008-04-16. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  3. ↑ Duralde, Alonso (2012-01-12). "Review: 'Contraband' Operates by the Numbers, Loses Count". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  4. ↑ "A look back at 2011’s notable departures – Greece.com". Bostonglobe.com. 2011-12-30. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  5. ↑ "Leonard B. Stern, Creator of Mad Libs, Dies at 88". The New York Times. June 9, 2011.
  6. ↑ Weekend Edition Saturday (2007-02-24). "'Revelations' About a Precursor to 'Mad Libs'". NPR. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  7. ↑ Stern, Leonard. "The History of Mad Libs". www.madlibs.com. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Werris, Wendy (2012-10-15). "Obituary: Larry Sloan, 89". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  9. 1 2 Nelson, Valerie J. (2012-10-17). "Larry Sloan dies at 89; co-founder of 'Mad Libs' publisher". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  10. ↑ Fox, Margalit (June 9, 2011). "Leonard B. Stern, Creator of Mad Libs, Dies at 88". The New York Times.
  11. 1 2 "Mad Libs and Dangling Participles – SchoolBook". Nytimes.com. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
  12. ↑ Price, Roger; Leonard Stern (1974). The Original Mad Libs 1. Price Stern Sloan. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8431-0055-6.
  13. ↑ "Schools Scramble to Prepare Students". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Oct 7, 2002. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
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