Mad Libs

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Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by Leonard Stern and Roger Price, who published the first "Mad Libs" book themselves in 1958. 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, but with many of the key words replaced with blanks. Beneath each blank is specified a lexical or other category, such as noun, verb, place, or a 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, surreal and somewhat nonsensical.

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

"One day, ________________ _________________ to New York to see the ______." name of person past-tense verb noun

After completing the Mad Lib, it might read:

"One day, Marco Polo flew to New York to see the clock."

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 Dumb 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 Lbs)-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 0843122390
*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
*Operation(TM) Mad Libs - ISBN 0-8431-2090-8

ee also

*Mad Libs (game show)
*Snowclone
*Phrasal template
*Consequences
*Exquisite corpse

External links

* [http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/madlibs/history.html How Mad Libs got its start]
* [http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/madlibs/ Publisher's site]