Mad Libs

For the hip hop artist, see Madlib.

Mad Libs (from ad lib, a spontaneous improvisation) is a phrasal template word game 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 or as a pastime.

Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by Leonard Stern and Roger Price, who published the first Mad Libs book themselves in 1958. It resembles the earlier games of Consequences and Exquisite Corpse. Mad Libs books are still published by Price Stern Sloan, an imprint of Penguin Group, cofounded by Price and Stern.

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". 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 comical, surreal and somewhat nonsensical.

For example, a Mad Lib sentence might initially look like this:

 "One day, a ________________ went to ________ and _________________ a ______."
              name of animal           place        past-tense verb     noun

After completion, the sentence might read:

 "One day, a Smurf went to Exeter and smashed a whale."

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.

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-Barbera
• 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

See also

• Snowclone
• Phrasal template
• Cloze test
• eLibs

References

• Publisher's site

Other References

• Other sites