Pittsburgh comedian Annie Claffey is searching for America’s favorite adjective. She’ll be driving a green-and-blue car decked out with Mad Libslogos across the country over the next six weeks.
“We are just trying to generate chatter about Mad Libs,” Claffey said.
The game was created in 1953 by Leonard Stern and Roger Price, writers on popular mid-50s sitcom The Honeymooners.
“They were tired of using the same adjectives and the same words all the time,” Claffey said. “So one of the writers said to another one, ‘just give me an adjective.’”
The writer was looking for something to describe a nose, another writer — unaware of the word it modified — responded with “clumsy and naked.”
“They all had a big laugh about that,” Claffey said. “So it just kept going from there.”
Claffey said the game has been around ever since, but it’s lost a bit of its cache because of the internet.
“It’s really kind of a forgotten fun word game that we really need to bring back,” Claffey said. “There’s such a nostalgic thing about it.”
Claffey has been playing Mad Libs with city residents, resulting in bizarre sentences with a local flavor. On Thursday’s Essential Pittsburgh, Claffey and a caller came up with, “a romantic Steeler will add interest to your otherwise curious life, you will inherit a large sum of Cleveland Browns from a dear, departed sportscaster” as well as “although thoughts weigh quietly on your bicep you are never without a sense of pierogi.”
“We’re spreading the word across the country to bring back the fun in Mad Libs and bring people together,” Claffey said. “And every time we play it’s hilarious.”
You can find out where Claffey and the Mad Libs car will be traveling next on Twitter at @MadLibs or at MadLibs.com
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