Mad Libs

Key takeaways

Mad Libs belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mad Libs to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mad Libs from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mad Libs is a word game created by Leonard Stern and Roger Price. It consists of one player prompting others for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story before reading aloud. The game is frequently played as a party game or as a pastime. It can be categorized as a phrasal template game. 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.

History Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by Leonard Stern and Roger Price. Stern and Price created the game, but could not agree on a name for their invention. 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. 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". Stern and Price used that eavesdropped conversation to create, at length, the name "Mad Libs". In 1958, the duo released the first book of Mad Libs, which resembled the earlier games 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. 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. Together, the three founded the publishing firm Price Stern Sloan in the early 1960s as a way to release Mad Libs. 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. 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 Random House. Mad Libs books are still published by Penguin Random House; however, all references to Price Stern Sloan have been removed from the company's official website. Stern died at age 88 on June 7, 2011, and Sloan on October 14, 2012. More than 110 million copies of Mad Libs have been sold since the game series was first published in 1958.

Predecessors of Mad Libs It is unclear whether the creators of Mad Libs were aware of existing games and books similar to their own. One such game is Revelations About My Friends, published anonymously by Fredrick A. Stokes Companies in New York in 1912. Like Mad Libs, the book invites the reader to choose words in various categories which then become part of a story. The nineteenth century parlor game "Consequences" is also similar to Mad Libs.

Format Mad Libs books contain short stories on each page with many key words replaced with blanks. Beneath each blank is specified a category, such as "noun", "verb", "number", "celebrity", "exclamation" or "part of the body". One player asks the other players, in turn, to contribute a word of 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 a comedic sentence. Stern and Price's original Mad Libs book gives the following sentence as an example:

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 following is a list of most Mad Libs books in alphabetical order:

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 online. Imitation Mad Libs are sometimes used in educational settings to help teach kids the parts of speech. A stage adaptation called Mad Libs Live! with music by Jeff Thomson and book and lyrics by Robin Rothstein premiered off-Broadway at New World Stages from November 2nd, 2015 to January 3rd, 2016. The show, which is now available for licensing, features audience participation to fill in "missing words" from each song. Looney Labs released Mad Libs: The Game, a card game, in 2016. There is also a Mad Libs mobile app.

See also Snowclone Phrasal template Cloze test Consequences (game) Exquisite corpse Cards Against Humanity

References

External links madlibs.com

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mad Libs

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mad Libs claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mad Libs before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mad Libs ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mad Libs

In research: Mad Libs appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mad Libs in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mad Libs is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Book series introduced in 1958, Comedy books, Random text generation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mad Libs outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Mad Libs in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mad Libs means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mad Libs out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mad Libs in simple terms?

Mad Libs is a word game created by Leonard Stern and Roger Price. It consists of one player prompting others for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story before reading aloud.

Why does Mad Libs matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mad Libs?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mad Libs.