Comics : Spider-Man Mad Libs: World's Greatest Kids' Party Game

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	Spider-Man Mad Libs: World's Greatest Kids' Party Game  FIND @ Amazon
	Editor:  Price/Stern/Sloan	Staff Only Images Review Edit
	No Month 1981 : SM Title : Spider-Man Books (Misc)

If (like myself) you never came across this phenomenon in your childhood, let me clarify that "Mad Libs" is a structured party game for the younger generation. You buy a book of short tales, with gaps marked "Noun", "Adjective", "Type of Animal", etc.

A "reader" looks at the page, and after explaining to victims of the modern education system exactly what a "plu-perfect adverbial clause" is, prompts the assembled "players" for words to fit the gap, but without showing them the context. Then, read the story back, with the supplied words. The silly sequences and novel non sequiturs will theoretically produce a laugh.

To be specific, this is a top-hinged pad of pages around 5.5" x 8.5", holding around 20 pages of mad libs, with a few B&W illustrations scattered through. Advertised as "A do-it-yourself laugh book", and "World's greatest kid's party game", I guess it could well produce a chuckle among the right crowd in the right circumstances. In fact, I suspect that after a whole bottle of Fanta, my seven year-old would be ready to laugh at these until bubbles came out of her nose. On the other hand, I don't think it'll go down too well at my weekly French Poetry-Reading Society.

Still, it's a book, since it has an ISBN. So, there it is in my collection, and here it is being reviewed. But I suspect that the younger generation today is going to get more of a kick out of a four-way rumble on a PlayStation 2, while those a little older might prefer this little dictionary game, suitable for four or more players of an adequate stage of literacy:

the game is played in a series of rounds. Take it in turns to be the Referee for the round. The referee looks up an obscure word in the dictionary, and tells the other player the word, but not the meaning.

Players then write down a possible dictionary definition for the word, trying to make it sound as realistic as possible, even if they don't know the true meaning. They write down their definitions (and their names), and hand them to the Referee.

The Referee writes down the actual definition, and mixes it up with all of the fake definitions. S/He then reads all the definitions in turn, and the players make their guess as to which one they believe to be the real meaning. The Referee doesn't make a guess.

The Referee then reveals the real meaning, and awards points as follows, or some pre-agreed variation thereof:

• 1 Point - For submitting a meaning very close to the real definitions.
• 1 Point - For every person who voted for your definition.
• 1 Point - For guessing the actual dictionary definition.

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