What are Mad Libs? How to play, the rules, and where the game came from

Mad Libs is a word game where you fill in the blanks of a story without seeing the story first. You're asked for words by type, such as "a noun" or "an adjective", and your answers are put into the gaps. Because you didn't know the context, the finished story is almost always ridiculous. Reading it out loud is the whole point.

The same game is often called a fill-in-the-blank story, a word game story or a "lib". On Fun Libs, every story is played this way.

How to play Mad Libs

You need at least one person to read and one to answer. It's easier with more.

1. One person is the reader. They look at the story but don't read it out.
2. The reader asks for words. They go through the blanks in order and ask for each word type: "Give me an adjective." "Now a body part." "A number."
3. The players answer. They say the first word that comes to mind. Nobody gets to see the story.
4. The reader writes each word in its blank.
5. The reader reads the whole story out loud. This is where everyone laughs.

When you play online on Fun Libs, the app is the reader: it asks for the words one at a time and shows you the finished story, with your words highlighted.

The rules

There are only a few, and none of them are strict.

• Don't look at the story. Knowing the story spoils the surprise.
• Answer with the word type asked for. A verb when it asks for a verb. Getting the type right makes the sentence sound real, which is what makes it funny.
• Answer quickly. The first word is usually the funniest.
• There are no wrong answers. If "spaghetti" is your idea of a place, that's fine.

Word types you'll be asked for

• Noun: a thing, like toaster. Plural noun is more than one: toasters.
• Verb: an action, like jump. Verb ending in -ing: jumping. Past tense verb: jumped.
• Adjective: a describing word, like sticky.
• Adverb: how something is done, usually ending in -ly, like loudly.
• Exclamation: something you shout, like Yikes!
• Specific prompts: name, place, animal, food, color, number, body part, celebrity.

Need ideas? We've put together a Mad Libs word list with funny words for every type.

A Mad Libs example

Here's a story with blanks:

Today I went to the (Place) to buy a (Adjective) (Noun). The shopkeeper (Verb, past tense) at me and said, "(Exclamation)! That will be (Number) dollars."

And here's the same story after some quick answers:

Today I went to the dentist to buy a soggy trampoline. The shopkeeper sneezed at me and said, "Holy guacamole! That will be seven million dollars."

Who invented Mad Libs?

Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by two comedy writers, Leonard Stern and Roger Price. Stern was writing a script for The Honeymooners and was stuck on an adjective to describe a character's nose. He asked Price for one, and Price answered "clumsy and naked". Neither word made sense, and both of them found that hilarious. They spent the rest of the day writing stories with missing words, and the game was born.

It took five more years to find a name. In 1958, at a New York restaurant, they overheard an actor tell his agent that he wanted to "ad-lib" an interview, and the agent said that would be "mad". Mad plus ad-lib became Mad Libs, and the first book came out that same year. Over 110 million copies have been sold since.

What does "lib" mean?

"Lib" is short for ad-lib: making something up on the spot. That's what the players do when they answer. Fun Libs keeps the word: each story on the site is a "lib".

Try it now

The quickest way to understand Mad Libs is to play one. Pick a story, fill in the blanks and read what you made. It's free, and you don't need an account. If you want to write your own, our guide on how to make your own Mad Libs shows you how.

Mad Libs is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC. Fun Libs is an independent game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mad Libs or Penguin Random House.