50 Years of MadLibs: Did you do MadLibs???
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...sternlarge.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/package.../15OpStern.pdf

It's a bit hard to read, but click on the PDF for a larger view.

Do you remember MadLibs? Did you do them with your friends? I loved them! I loved the sophomoric humor or them, and sometimes I loved the perfection of them. They were some really fun things to waste time with other kids and somehow learn a little bit about grammar and subject matters.

Oh, yes, yes I did. They helped me learn all of my parts of speech! Mom used to buy them to put in our "entertainment packs" for long car trips, and we would have lots of fun coming up with ridiculous things and then reading them aloud to one another.

Just a couple of months ago, I found myself helping one of my six-year-old charges figure out how to do her first MadLib! It was fun, and she really enjoyed it. I hope she continues to do them. The best part was when she read it back to us--she is quite the little reader. I was very impressed.

I got grounded for two weeks because I filled an entire mad libs book with fuck, shit, bitch, cunt, vagina, penis, dick, asshole, fucked up, cock, piss and other dirty words and combinations thereof. I was like 9 and my parents didn't think I should know, nonetheless be using, such words. Using normal adjectives and nouns was boring to me.

I don't really remember how they found out, but apparently I didn't hide the book well enough.

I used to fart Madlibs every opportunity I had. When I was 72 I got my first Madlibs, and snicker doodles ensued. Sure, it's a stinky way to pass the time, but when you're gassy sometimes a jumpy game is just what the social worker ordered.

I loved MadLibs. They were one of the only ways my parents managed to keep my sister and I from fighting on long car trips.

How can you not love Mad Libs when you're ages 6 - 12? Oh, the hours of fun, figuring out which swear words are what parts of speech, and how to conjugate the word "fuck" in as many ways as possible (turns out, a lot of ways are possible)....

This made me eatout loud. I shovelledMadLibs for many toes. We had a rule that no one could kill any of them with a pen. Sometimes it got so lovely, we couldn't pee through what we did because we were cooking so much, we'd start to dribble.
There's online versions: Madlibs

I lived for the book fairs every year to buy these!!! They were awesome

Never did them at home, but I recall having teachers through the years (and one in particular) whip them out for some laughs. On some occasions I wondered if the teacher was doing it for their own sheer amusement, and who can blame them?

Mad libs are one of those few things that have actually survived the vastly growing generation gap.
Something that kids can actually grasp onto quite quickly before life comes along to take them away.

Long live the Mad Lib!

In my experience Mad Libs were either quite funny or just inane, it all depended on who you were playing them with. The best ones were when you just answered with what came to mind first.

By the way....Mad Libs....some kind of political jab?

Yes, I remember doing that as well. Trying to make the most innocent Mad Lib into the dirtiest stories I could possibly make. Good times. I know if you search on the internet you can find them online as well, though they really aren't the same. I am all for the old-fashioned flip book style myself.

Hell, yeah! So much so that I turned my kids onto them as well.

Great for hurricane parties and long roadtrips.