Mad about Mad Libs

More than 100 million copies sold. Hundreds of editions. Nearly 70 years on store shelves. Now published by Penguin Random House, Mad Libs is about as familiar as a product gets.

But there are a few things about them that might surprise you.

1. It started with a nose.

In 1953, TV comedy writer Leonard Stern was working on a Honeymooners script and got stuck trying to find the right words to describe a character’s nose.

His friend Roger Price, who had no idea what Stern was writing, started throwing out random adjectives. Stern plugged them into the sentence. They were ridiculous. They kept going, and the basic idea for Mad Libs was hatched.

2. No one wanted to publish it.

Publishers told Stern and Price that Mad Libs was a game and sent them to toy companies. Toy companies told them it was a book and belonged with a publisher.

So in 1958, they published it themselves. Their first run was 14,000 copies, which they had to store in Roger Price’s NYC apartment dining room. Road reps with cars and rooms full of samples and catalogs may find this relatable ;)

Luckily, Stern got The Steve Allen Show to feature Mad Libs with the audience calling out words, and with that exposure, Mad Libs quickly sold out in stores. A star was born.

3. Seattle is the only city with its own Mad Libs.

Only Seattle has its own standalone, namesake Mad Libs edition. Not NY, not L.A., not Chicago, not Paris... just Seattle.
And I Love Seattle Mad Libs has another very local connection: it debuted in 2014 as a one-year exclusive for Bartell Drugs before going into wider distribution.

More than a decade later, it’s still in the line, and one of our best-selling Mad Libs.

4. Mad Libs was, briefly, an Off-Broadway musical.

In 2015, Mad Libs Live! opened at New World Stages in New York. Audience members supplied the missing nouns, verbs and adjectives, which were worked into the songs, making every performance a little different.

The New York production lasted just two months. The cast album lives on.

5.There’s a Mad Libs for practically everything.

From Shakespeare to KPop Demon Hunters, astrology, beer, camping, any holiday, the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s... if it’s part of the culture, chances are Mad Libs has gotten there.
This makes them so much fun to merchandise and work into displays. With so many titles to choose from, Mad Libs can land in nearly any area of a store, from holidays and travel to sports, weddings and pop culture.

And after nearly 70 years, they still have the same basic appeal: nostalgic, hilarious, and totally analog.
All you need is a pencil, another person and a bunch of inappropriate words.

6. It’s the best seller we don’t put on our best seller report.

You may have noticed that Mad Libs don’t appear on The Book Report Best Seller list. We leave them off on purpose.

They sell in such volume, and across so many of our accounts, that they would take over the Penguin Random House list and push everything else down. They really are their own category.

Pictured above are Fine Lines’ current 12 top selling Mad Libs across the Pacific Northwest.
There are literally hundreds to choose from, and hardly a Mad Libs that doesn’t sell well.
Looking for something specific? Call on your Fine Lines book rep. They’re always happy to curate a few titles for your store, or display idea.