Mad Libs
Words have been taken out of a text in advance; the others supply them blind, knowing only the part of speech, and then hear the result.
The holds a text with several words left out as , each marked only with what should go there: an adjective, a city, a number, a verb in the past tense. They ask the others for those words — showing neither the text nor even what it is about.
Nobody knows where what they say will land. That is exactly why it lands funnily: the word is chosen on its own account and then has to work inside somebody else's sentence, built for something quite different.
The whole thing is read at the end and only then. Showing the text early kills the game: as soon as the sentence is visible, words start being chosen to fit, and instead of a collision you get composition.
Where it came from
The game grew out of ready-made forms: texts with blanks came to be printed in pads, a story to a page, and sold. Hence its shape — not a box with rules but a sheaf of leaves whose rules fit into a few lines on the cover.
Nothing stops you writing the text yourself, though: the more ordinary the original — a news item, an instruction, a greeting — the harder it buckles.
Rules of Mad Libs
What you need
A text with blanks, each marked with a part of speech or a class of word. A pencil for the reader.
The reader
The reader is the only one who sees the text. They do not read it aloud, do not summarise it and do not hint at what the story is about.
Collecting the words
The reader goes through the blanks in order and asks for what is marked: "adjective", "name", "part of the body", "verb in the past tense". Each word given is written straight into its blank.
Anybody may answer; the simplest way is to ask round the table so that everyone gets a turn.
The word must fit the part of speech asked for — that is the only requirement. Whether it makes sense is beside the point.
Reading
Once every blank is filled, the reader reads the text aloud in full, with the words that were supplied.
The next round
Another player becomes the reader, and a new text is taken. A text already filled in is not played twice: its surprise has been spent.
Playing for points
For a competition, each player fills in their own copy of the same text and then all of them are read aloud. The group votes for the best version, and its author scores a point.
Worth knowing
The game is sold in pads and the rules are printed on the cover in two or three lines, so no detail is settled anywhere: whether words are asked for round the table or from whoever answers first, whether an awkward word may be refused, whether anything may be asked twice. A score is optional and most descriptions keep none at all.
Glossary of terms
- A blank
- A place in the text with a word taken out. Above it stands only a part of speech or a class: adjective, city, verb in the past tense.
- The reader
- The player holding the text. They ask for the words, write them in and read the result aloud.