Mad, Like Scientists

Picture it: New York, 1953*. Leonard Stern is diligently working on a script for an episode of television's The Honeymooners. He sits there, struggling to find the perfect word to describe Ralph Kramden's new boss. Kramden of course works as a bus driver, though on the show he is never seen driving the bus. As Stern struggles with this word, his friend and fellow write Roger Price enters the room.

Deciding to seek Price's help, Stern turns to him and says, "I need an adjective--"

"Clumsy. Naked," Price quickly interrupts. The duo burst into laughter. Stern then explains to Price the context of the word. Further laughter ensues.

Over the next few weeks, Price and Stern begin writing various fill-in-the-blank stories for parties and other social gatherings. They were consistently popular for simultaneously being hilarious, illogical, and bawdy. Price and Stern realized what they were onto.

Later that same year, book publishers refused to publish what was eventually termed Mad Libs. After all, Mad Libs was a game. It needed a game publisher. Unfortunately, to game publishers, Mad Libs was a book. It needed a book publisher. Each insisted that it fell under the duty of the other.

Price and Stern were not known for being discouragable. In 1958, after five years of being turned away, Price and Stern self-published 14,000 copies. Friend Ian Ballentine, president of Ballentine Books agreed to help the duo with distribution. Within days, all 14,000 copies had been sold by various bookstores. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad Price and Stern took this chance. Mad Libs were a great deal of fun in my childhood years - a fun that, like many other fun things, I rediscovered in college. But in college I discovered something entirely new about Mad Libs - I could write my own! I also discovered that a lot of people don't know what an adverb is, but that's beside the point.

Friends and enemies alike would give me parts of speech. I've performed them at open mic nights, soliciting words from the audience before the performance, generally to the laughter of everyone involved. In honor of having an awesome month at the blog, I've decided to have a little fun this week and do a Mad Lib**!

So it begins: follow me on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook***. I will take the first valid entry for each word. Also, if I get sufficient participation, each person will only be allowed to submit one word. We're going to keep it clean, but we're going to have fun. Enjoy. I know I will.

*It was 1953. I'm not actually sure where, but New York makes sense to me. It's unimportant to the story, so we're sticking with New York.
**Technically it's not, as I'm confident Mad Lib is a trademarked term. It's a fill-in-the-blank story.
***Hopefully this will get me using the fan page again. We'll see.

Picture it: New York, 1953*. Leonard Stern is diligently working on a script for an episode of television's The Honeymooners. He sits there, struggling to find the perfect word to describe Ralph Kramden's new boss. Kramden of course works as a bus driver, though on the show he is never seen driving the bus. As Stern struggles with this word, his friend and fellow write Roger Price enters the room.

Deciding to seek Price's help, Stern turns to him and says, "I need an adjective--"

"Clumsy. Naked," Price quickly interrupts. The duo burst into laughter. Stern then explains to Price the context of the word. Further laughter ensues.

Over the next few weeks, Price and Stern begin writing various fill-in-the-blank stories for parties and other social gatherings. They were consistently popular for simultaneously being hilarious, illogical, and bawdy. Price and Stern realized what they were onto.

Later that same year, book publishers refused to publish what was eventually termed Mad Libs. After all, Mad Libs was a game. It needed a game publisher. Unfortunately, to game publishers, Mad Libs was a book. It needed a book publisher. Each insisted that it fell under the duty of the other.

Price and Stern were not known for being discouragable. In 1958, after five years of being turned away, Price and Stern self-published 14,000 copies. Friend Ian Ballentine, president of Ballentine Books agreed to help the duo with distribution. Within days, all 14,000 copies had been sold by various bookstores. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad Price and Stern took this chance. Mad Libs were a great deal of fun in my childhood years - a fun that, like many other fun things, I rediscovered in college. But in college I discovered something entirely new about Mad Libs - I could write my own! I also discovered that a lot of people don't know what an adverb is, but that's beside the point.

Friends and enemies alike would give me parts of speech. I've performed them at open mic nights, soliciting words from the audience before the performance, generally to the laughter of everyone involved. In honor of having an awesome month at the blog, I've decided to have a little fun this week and do a Mad Lib**!

So it begins: follow me on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook***. I will take the first valid entry for each word. Also, if I get sufficient participation, each person will only be allowed to submit one word. We're going to keep it clean, but we're going to have fun. Enjoy. I know I will.

*It was 1953. I'm not actually sure where, but New York makes sense to me. It's unimportant to the story, so we're sticking with New York.
**Technically it's not, as I'm confident Mad Lib is a trademarked term. It's a fill-in-the-blank story.
***Hopefully this will get me using the fan page again. We'll see.

Mad, Like Scientists