Mad Libs Live: Verbs, Adverbs and More

On this episode, we talk about the history of one of America's simplest, and most-enduring, games: Mad Libs. Then listen to us struggle to find the right words as we play Mad Libs live. How many adverbs will we have to name?

This episode was made possible by the following sources:

MadLibs.com (History)

Episode Topics and Mentions:

Mad Libs
Boy band culture
Trivia games
Christmas toys from the 80s
Broadway musicals
Leonard Stern
Roger Price
Larry Sloan
Bob Hope
Steve Allen
Meryl Streep
Fannie Flagg
Kathy Bates
Mary Stuart Masterson
Olivia Rodrigo
Taylor Swift
The Honeymooners
Dawson's Creek
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
She-Ra: Princess of Power
ThunderCats
G.I. Joe
Laverne & Shirley
Out of Africa
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Lion King
Clueless
Rainbow Brite
Disney Channel
Trivial Pursuit
Nintendo
Cabbage Patch Kids
Teddy Ruxpin
Pound Puppies
Pound Purries
Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk
Rent
Seussical
Sardi's
Whistle Stop Cafe
Kenya

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Transcript

Cold Open And Welcome Back

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Oh crap, Katie, there's 14,000 of these. What are we going to do? That is totally something we would do. Hi everyone, and welcome back to Generation Between, a Xennial podcast where we remember, revisit, and sometimes relearn all kinds of things about being 80s kids and 90s teens. My name is Danny. Hi, my name is Katie. And today we are gonna have a little fun. I mean, we always have a little fun, but we had no re Oh, lies, I did have research this episode. You do have some teeny bit. We're gonna talk about mad libs today, the pastime of many a generation, not just Xenols. Uh, and I brought some that we're gonna do. We're gonna hear little facts. Um, but yeah, but before we get going, what's going on, Katie? Um, well, I've tell everybody what you brought today. I brought, well, I brought again my Born in the 80s notebook, YouTubers, if you're taking a peek, in my Neon Leopard print podcast bag. She brought it finally, all together. And um, that's it. I brought those things. And then Danny, Danny brought the mad libs in the research, and that's and my notes for Dawson's Creek are in this little notebook. Yeah, she went in. I did it. She went in. She went in. She also, you guys, do you know what she came in here with? What? And I said, I am not using that. Oh, I know what you're gonna say. She came in here with a cushion for my seat, so I am not sitting low. But if you're watching us, I'm not low. I just have my chair pushed up farther, so I look equal height. But she came in with those cushions. She's I was like, she's like, Oh, I got something for you. I was like, I'm not using it. If you come in here with a booster seat, I said it's not a booster seat, it's a cushion. But she still that will elevate your butt and make you exactly that will make you two inches taller. I don't

Why Mad Libs Still Work

SPEAKER_00 1:51

need it. Okay, so we're actually gonna do some mad libs today. Did you do these as a kid? Oh, yes. Oh my god, me too. I love them so much, they're so funny. And it's such a good way. Like, I remember doing them in school. It's such a good way to learn parts of speech. It actually is. And even with my kids now, like when we've done them, they'll be like, wait, what's an adverb again? Right. And then, you know, we're trying to like figure all that out. What's a why what's a proper noun is compared to a noun, you know, just kind of like a good reminder. Yes. Yeah. And it always I always loved how it had like the cheat sheet in the beginning that tells you all the parts of speech. Because I would always forget what an adverb was. Adverb's the hardest, I think it is. I would always remember it was the L Y. The L Y would help me remember. Yes.

The Origin Story Of Mad Libs

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Okay, so if you've never played Mad Libs, or maybe you've played them a million times, you I bet you don't know the history. Do you know anything about the history of Mad Libs? About Mad Libs. Okay, it has a really fun history, and most of it I got from the Mad Libs website. Cool. Which is really fun. And these go back a lot farther than I thought they did. When do you think they were invented? I was guessing like 1950s. Oh, actually. Okay, well, you're right. Oh, I you're right. I thought it was like 70s. Oh, okay. The only reason, I don't know. It just seemed like that would be a time that I don't know, that America was ready for madness. Era of time. I don't know. Oh, yeah, it was created in 1953. Actually. Okay. Early 50s, uh, by two men named Leonard Stern and Roger Price. So I'm just gonna give you a brief history. It's like a page and a half, guys, which for me and research is like the last one you had was what, 14 pages? I don't even know. Yeah, because if if you just found us for Mad Libs or you just skip around, uh, we've just come out of our boy band series, which was uh very dense research-wise and very heavy in other ways. So we just needed we just need a little palette cleanse today. I don't even remember how did how did we come up with this idea for this episode? Uh, I feel like we were trying to maybe get ahead or something, which we're we're not really gonna end up doing. And I was like, well, let's just use something that doesn't need a lot of research or time. Oh, why don't we do mad libs? Because we'd be doing trivia a lot. And trivia's fun, but we'll be doing live trivia soon. Yeah, everybody tickets July July 3rd. We probably need to re-promote that soon. Yeah, we need to re-promote that soon, and then also our Xennial Girl Summer Part 2 is coming up, or have we done it three times? Is this our third one? The first summer we didn't do it. Okay, so I have the list ready to go. Yeah, I'm gonna post it. Well, by the time you hear this episode, it will have already been posted, and I'll pin it. So I'm gonna post it later this week. I've got all the movies we're gonna watch, all the books we're gonna reread, and uh it's gonna start soon because the last day of school is next week, and Katie's daughter graduates next week. Yes. What? I know. Wild. So wild. Wild. All right, so here we go. Let's get into mad libs history, and then we're gonna play some mad libs on air, and it's gonna be great. I cannot wait. Okay, so like I said, created by two men, Leonard Stern and Roger Price. So Leonard Stern has said this about Mad Libs. This is a direct quote. The creation of Mad Libs is directly linked to my inability to spell hyperbole in a seventh-grade spelling bee. Humiliated and embarrassed beyond words, I ran home to take refuge in the family dictionary, determined to learn the correct spelling and exact meaning of as many words as humanly possible. The dictionary became my constant companion, my roommate. Even today, it's by my bedside, and on sleepless nights, I make a point of learning at least one new word. That's cute. I know. Oh, the story gets even more fun. Okay. Okay, so 1953, Leonard Stern he was working as a writer on the honeymooners TV show. Um, he was writing a script on his typewriter in his uh New York City apartment, and he was trying to think of an adjective to describe the nose of Ralph's new boss. Okay, he wanted something funny, and nothing, nothing just seemed right. And Katie, as a writer, you probably know that feeling. Well, we're like, ah, I need something unique and I can't, I just can't think of it. And this was before internet, right? Where you could just do thesaurus.com or whatever and come up with a lot of suggestions. Um, he said everything seemed cliche and boring, and so his friend Roger Price showed up. So Roger was coming over because he was also a writer, and they were writing a book together called What Not to Name the Baby. Okay, that's hilarious. And this book was based on Roger's kind of bizarre theory that names exert more influence on our personalities than either heredit heredity or environment.

unknown 6:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Which I think is so interesting. And also, I I am now I want to read this book out as going on there. And this book is what you said in the 50s. Yeah, so it's old now. Okay. So he comes over and Leonard's at his typewriter, like sweating it out. And Leonard told Richard, I'll be with you in a minute. I gotta finish what I'm working on. And Richard was like, Well, how can I help? So Leonard goes, Well, I need an adjective that, and before he even finished his sentence, Richard said clumsy and naked, just from the word adjective. Yeah. And so Ralph's boss then had a clumsy nose, and that became comedy gold. That's great. Obviously, you can't say a naked nose because that makes no sense, but I mean, I guess it could in the right context. But uh, so realizing what a fun game they just kind of inadvertently made, they decided to put their work to the side, and they just spent the rest of the afternoon writing stories with keywords left out, but which is the outline for the first Mad Lib, right? That evening they were going to a party, and so they brought the game with them, and that is where the first inofficial game of Mad Libs uh was played. Everyone loved it, and they were like, oh, this needs to be published. Y'all need to like get this to the masses. And they agreed, but they didn't have a name for the game until five years later. Okay. Okay. Oh wow. Yeah. So the name came to them in 1958. They were eating eggs benedict. I don't know why this is important, at Sardi's in New York City. Okay. And at the table, for those of y'all that don't know, this is like a landmark restaurant in in New York for entertainers. And at the table next to them, there was an actor and his agent, and they were fighting. Okay. They were, well, not fighting, but they were in an argument. The actor said that he wanted to ad lib an interview he had coming up. And the agent said that that was a mad thing to do. Uh huh. So Roger and Leonard were like, ding ding, idea, light bulb. So they they abandoned their breakfast and they went straight to the publisher who just published Roger's humor book, which was called In One Head and Out the Other. Um and they were like, Hey, we've got this idea for a book. It's called Mad Libs. And the publisher was like, Well, that's not really a great idea for a book, but it would be an amazing game. So he said, Go find you a game manufacturer. So ironically, they did find a game manufacturer who told them, go find a publisher, because he said it would be a better book. Yeah, because if you think about it, it's kind of in between, right? Right, it is. It's in between. So they went to every publisher and every game manufacturer within a 50-mile radius.

Self-Publishing 14,000 Surprise Copies

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Dang. And they got denied by everyone. Everyone was like, no, this isn't quite right. So Leonard and Roger said, Hey, let's just publish Mad Libs ourselves. Um, and this is such a cool story because I don't even know if you could do it like this nowadays. I mean, I guess you could maybe, but they designed the book, they found a printer, and then they just placed an order. And now, granted, they're already pretty successful writers right now, so they have some income. They have influence. True. Yeah. Uh so they placed the order, but it never occurred to them that the printers did not double as warehouses where they would store what you had printed. So the printer uh called them and they were like, Okay, where do you want me to deliver these 14,000 copies of Mad Lip? And so they had to give them the address of Roger's large Central Park West apartment, which by the way was probably a good size. Yeah. And I think he lived alone. So they brought them and they delivered them to his dining room. Oh my God. Where they were for three months and 17 days until they found a willing, one-time only distributor. So they were like, all right, we'll do this for you once and we'll see what happens. Like we'll distribute these 14,000 different places. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So they got the books in stores, and Leonard then arranged a meeting with Steve Allen, who had a Sunday night variety TV show. And Leonard was a head writer for that show as well as Honeymooners. And he said, Um, hey, why don't we try Mad Libs as a way of introducing guests that come on your show and have the audience fill in the missing words?

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So they use mad libs the very next week to introduce Bob Hope, who was their guest. Oh my god. And by Wednesday the following week, stores were sold out of mad libs. Everybody loved them. Yeah. And I mean, great, great, great idea to do that. So that's kind of how they got going and how they started to get big. So this was the end of the 50s, and so in the early 60s, there um they had our friend named Larry Larry. We always have the Larry. Larry is back. He's back. Larry Sloan, he joined them as a partner and a CEO, and they formed the publishing company, not a very creative name, because it's called Price, Stern, and Sloan. Yeah, like their last name. That could be publishers, that could be lawyers, that could be dentists, who knows? So very quickly, their publishing company became the largest publisher on the West Coast because of Mad Libs being a bestseller. Okay. Um, so that's kind of how it started. I'm just gonna give you some random facts now. You said the West Coast? Yeah, uh, I guess I I guess I didn't write down how that happened. Maybe it's the other person it might be. Might be located over there in Los Angeles or something. So here's just some random facts. That's kind of how it got going and how they started. Roger died in 1990, and um when that happened, three years later, Leonard and Larry sold their publishing company to Penguin Random House publishers, and they're the ones who still publish Mad Libs today. Okay. So one of the hugest publishers in the entire world. Right. Yes, okay, got it. Which makes sense because mad libs are everywhere. Yeah, and there's they're themed now, like all the things, yeah. Yep, and we're just gonna about talk about that. So mad libs have sold over 150 million copies of various versions since its release, and there's hundreds of types. Like there are medieval times, mad libs, DC Comics, Monsters, Star Wars, Decades, which we will play today. Yay! Well, I bought the 80s and the 90s. Um, there's holidays, and and then there's like adult themed versions and also like junior versions for younger kids. Um, they even had a game show called Mad Libs on the Disney Channel in 1998 and 1999. Did you know that? No, me neither. But guess what? It was there. Uh, they had a card game they released in 2016 called Mad Libs the Game, and there's also a Mad Libs mobile game app. That would be fun. Right. So that's all my random stuff. That would be fun. The only thing I wonder, I'll have to look at the mobile game app late later because part of the fun to me of Mad Libs is doing it with someone else because you don't know what they're gonna say. I know, I know. So I mean, how do you even do that? Yeah, if the mobile game is like just fill in the words yourself and then we'll tell you the story. I feel like that wouldn't be as fun. No.

unknown 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

So that's all the background happens. Okay, all right. It's a fun story because I feel like it's such like a hey, we have a good idea. Nobody thinks it's good, but we do. So let's make it happen. And they did. Yeah. And you're right, they like had the reasons to do it, but still, that's still they did it. It could have been like, oh, never mind. We'll just like not worry about it. Everyone hates it. But they were like, no, we're gonna print 14,000 copies, goddammit. But you know what? And we're gonna sell them. Wow, she was. I was really upset. God damn it, the bad lips are coming, they are coming to our dining room. I feel like well, I was about to say, I feel like if we ever had an idea and we're like, let's do it, that would be something that would happen to us where we wouldn't think, oh, where are we gonna put this shit? And be like, oh crap, Katie, there's 14,000 of these. What are we going to do? That is totally something we would do. And I feel like that happens at my studio too. Like, we'll be like, Oh, good, we're gonna have like this thing built, and then they're like, Where are we taking it? And we're like, Oh, we're not in the venue for two more weeks, I guess, to the place that already has too much stuff. But yes, yeah.

Random Facts Plus Real-Life Storage Chaos

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I know I walked in Katie's studio today and she's like, I'm going to storage. And I was like, There are so many chairs of various kinds. It's mostly chairs, but it's also props because we just did our um end of semester show, yeah, which was Sousical. So we have extra stuff for Susical. We still have all the things that we brought back from the giant building we were in. We did get rid of some of it, and we got an extra storage unit when we did that. So there's already stuff. We have two. So if you live in the Space Coast area and you either A, have a huge storage place you want to rent me for cheap, let me know. Or B, have a wonderful spot that 2,500 square feet or more that we can have a lovely theater and all the other things we need. Please hit me up. Support the arts. Please do. Cause because we uh run in out of room every day. Or listen, if you're not local and you have some money you just want to throw her away, yeah. That works too. We actually have a way you can donate to us as a nonprofit now as well. So get that deduction on your taxes, friends. Send us a message, we'll tell you how. There you go. Okay. All right,

Playing 80s And 90s Mad Libs

SPEAKER_00 15:43

so you ready to play, Matt? I'm ready. All right. Um, let me so we've got we've got 80s and 90s. These are so cute already. Well, here, you can just do 90s because that's what I got. Okay. So just find one. Okay. And we'll pick. I don't. Oh, I found a great one already. Wow. I have to do this one. Oh, okay. You want me to go first since I have 80s? Yeah, you go first. Okay, so guys, we're gonna do this live on the air. Okay, and I can't wait because it's gonna be a good time. And I won't be doing what I normally do, like reading your notes. I will look straight ahead. She's such a cheater. But she just admitted her cheating tendencies, everyone. I did not. Okay. Uh are Okay, here's my question. Let me tell you what. Oh, okay. I've always wondered why it has this at the top where it's like where you can list it. It's if you do it by yourself. That makes sense. Yeah. Because otherwise you gotta write it twice. Okay. All right, give me a plural noun. Um Roller skates. Ooh, okay. All right. How about a number? 54. Okay. I need another plural noun. Um cell phones. Okay. Which might be funny in the evil. I know, right? I don't know. Uh a regular noun. Oh my goodness. Um spatula. What? I don't know. You're being very creative. I always get stressed with mad libs because I'm like, what are words? I can't. And then you just say like the thing in front of you. I mean, I know, like blessed.

unknown 17:11

I know.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Um, okay, adjective. Uh smelly. Okay. Usually what turns out pretty good. You got strategy. I got strategy. Uh animal plural. Dogs. I knew it. Yeah. I can't believe it took this long to get dogs. Okay. Noun. Uh teacher. Okay. Verb. Swim. Another noun. Beach. Like, where do I want to be? Uh verb. Uh jump. Okay. Another verb. Sleep. Is this boring? I'm wondering if we're being boring. I don't know. I guess it'll all pay off. All right. Maybe. First name. Uh Danny. Oh boy. You're gonna be in the mad lib. All right, noun. Chair. See? I know. Looking at the review, I liked you out. You did. All right, verb. Uh eat. Verb ending in ing. Those are fun. Uh sweating. Okay. Last one, animal. He said dog. So how about Luigi? Specifically. Okay. So this one is a dialogue between a brother and sister. Okay. And it's titled Cartoon Lineup. So I'm going to do my best to do voices here. You did grab a cartoon one. I appre I appreciate you. I know. Yeah. Are we ready? I'm ready. I'm going to do a sister voice. I'm not going to say sister brother. I'm just going to do different voices. We'll see how this plans out. Give me the remote. I want to watch Jim and the Roller Skate. I'm 54 days older than you, so I get to choose. We're going to watch He-Man and the Cell Phones of the Universe. He-Man and the Cell Phones. I love it. Ek! She-ra, Princess of Spatula, is way more smelly than He-Man. Why don't we just turn on Thunderdogs? I always be asking that. Come on. Okay. Because you flushed my Lionel action figure down the teacher. And now I don't like that show. Swim me the remote. I have to find out if Skeletor conquered the fortress at Castle Grey Beach. Actually, that's not Castle Gray Beach. I like it. He's never going to jump the fortress if I don't get to sleep, Jim. How about we both watch G.I. Danny? G. Danny. Yes. How about I transform into Optimus Chair? And eat to eat you instead. Oh God. It's getting worse. I'm sweating. Mom, you said that. And then I'm going to watch my little Luigi just because you hate it. First of all, my little Luigi sounds like anything. I know I would watch that. That would be able to watch that. You just need like a uh Luigi Cam. I know. Like I used to have an Instagram for him that I ran for a while. But then now there's too many. I just can't. I still want to know what it was, just so I can look at the pictures you had. Or is it completely gone? No, it's still there. Okay, tell me. I'll find it later. I don't remember it. That was fun. All right. I like all the 80s references, like obviously, like He-Man and She-Ra and the Transformers reference. Uh that was fun. Some of them actually worked. I know, like the Fortress Grey Beach or whatever the heck that was called. I love it when it's stupid stuff, like because you flush my Lion O action figure down the teacher. Like, what? All right. That was great. Okay. Where's my cheat sheet so I can remember what parts of the words are? Wait, does it still have that? I wonder if it doesn't. Oh, it does. It does. Quick read. What does it say? An adverb tells how something is done, modifies a verb, and usually ends an LY. That's the one. I know the rest. Okay. All right then. Well, let's see. Do you really know the rest? We're about to find out. Well, you know? Verb. Um, we're gonna say shake. Okay. Number. Seven. Silly word. Look, that should be so easy. Uh what does that mean? Silly word? Umny. I don't know, I don't know. Hoot nanny. Okay, we got it. Uh adjective. Um soft. Plural noun. Cat. You said dogs, I guess I guess. You do. Number. One. Part of the body plural. Toes. Adjective. Um fast. She said. I feel like it's like an adult. I know. Like, and how many hours of sleep are you getting? I lie so much as a doctor. Okay. We all do. I know. Noun. Um dead. Verb. Skate. Did you say that? I said roller skate. Roller skate. Okay. Noun. Person in room. Katie. Nobody else is here than we know. Nobody else. Verb ending in ing. All right. Dancing. She said again. Noun. Noun. Okay. Kitchen. Verb ending in ing. Oh man. All right. I know. Washing. Noun. That was like so. Uh piano.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Adjective. Ah. Yeah. Okay. Adjective. Wait, I just read what that actually goes with. I wasn't paying attention. So it doesn't matter. Adjective. Warm. Okay. You didn't have an adverb in sight. Neither did I. Maybe they don't do as many adverbs now because people hate them. Okay. Are people that are bad at once? Do people really hate adverbs though? Oh, my kids don't like that one. They're always like, so okay. The boys in the band. Love is the name of this one. Oh, you had to do that one. That was the first one I turned to. I was like, well, I have to do this one. I love that so much. All right. Can you sing and shake like a superstar? Okay, that's that's pretty good. Are you a boy between the ages of 12 and 7? If so, then come down to Hooten Nanny Acres. Hootinanny Acres. I think that's a real place, guys. This Sunday to audition for a soft new boy band. Oh no. And the name is The New Cats on the Block. Produce producer. Wait, that's in the 90s. That should be 80s. That should be. Oh well.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Oh well.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Um, producer seek the following the dream boat. Raise the temperature one degree. Because this hunk melts so hot. One degree. Because this hunk melts toes with his fast voice. Gross. That's one of the guys they're looking for. Another guy, the dad next door. Oh, now that could be for real. That could be for real. If it's a boy band for adults. Well, have you seen that? That like I forgot what they're called now, like the boy band resurgence of people in their like boy bands that are still touring, like new kids, back to boys. They they called it like the dad band or something. Okay. It's like a hat on the on the rise. So there you go. The dad next door. Look, there you go. This cutie must skate like an angel and skate like an angel and dance like your neighbor, Katie. Oh, you better dance like me. I tell you what, some of those dads might be able to dance like me. Not the new kids, but average dads. Okay. The bad boy. This rebel needs a bad attitude and experience rapping or break dancing. Wait. You said dancing. I was like, how'd that make sense? Yeah. Break. Look at that. Uh verb ending in ING or break dancing. Is that when you went, mm-hmm? It was. That was one of them. The goofball. This adorable kitchen must look good in hats and be comfortable washing the harmony.

unknown 25:52

What?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Although I feel like washing the harmony should be a term. That's yeah. I think you need to invent that. Start like blending, but like say that. Say that next time you vocal director show. And be like, can you guys wash those harmonies? See what people do. Okay. I'll report back. Yeah. The baby one. This piano size singer must appeal to little sisters, so ticket sales stay warm. Okay, good too. But I also thought the baby one would be piano size. No, that'd be weird. No. That's it. That was a good one. Okay. Nice job. All right. All right. Let's do another one. Let's do one more. One more each decade. One more each decade. Okay. Hmm. Some of these are stupid. I gotta say. Well, you can look through yours too. Oh, while I'm I had my first one was just so perfect. Oh, this is a good one. All right. You can keep looking and I'll wait. I think I've got one. Okay. Give me an adjective, please. Smart. Okay. How about a number? 27. Uh, how about a letter of the alphabet? Z. Okay. Plural noun. Cows. All right. Type of food. Tacos. This is gonna be so funny. Adjective. Quick. Verb. Run. Adjective. Uh silly. Verb. Why are verbs so hard? I just want to do a thing. All right. Noun. Uh library. All right, first name. Uh Sarah. Shout out. Shout out. I'm not telling y'all if I'm right in the age or not. Just guess. It's a Sarah. Uh animal. Tiger. Okay, that's cute. Uh noun. Table. Plural animal. Monkeys. Cats and dogs, so we gotta expand. Color. Purple.

unknown 28:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Number. Four. Type of food plural. Let's see. Lasagnas. I need so many of those. And one more adjective. Uh hot. Okay. This is hilarious. This is a 1980s Christmas wish list. A little kid is writing to Santa, and I feel like I probably could have written this if these words were not in it. Literally, here we go. Dear Santa, I've been a smart child this year and only got grounded 27 times. Every other week. Uh-huh. I even got a Z on my math test. Oh. With that in mind, I have a long list of cows I want this holiday season. Here's the first thing a taco patch doll. These quick pals are all the rage, and if I don't get one, I'm going to run. Oh my god. I'm out of here. Here's the next thing Rainbow Silly instead of Rainbow Bright Guys, in case you don't know what that is. Yep. Um, I sing the TV show every week, and I wish I had a beauty library, just like she does. It sort of works. A beauty library. Okay. The next item is Sarah Ruxpin, the stuffed tiger that reads. Oh my God, we need to invent this. Yes. Sarah Roxpin. A stuffed tiger that reads. That's the one. He could read me a bedtime table every night. The next item is pound monkeys instead of pound puppies. Oh, cute. I want purple ones with spots, which okay, cute. Monkeys that are purple with spots. Let's go. Santa, I promise to leave you four cookies and lasagnas for your reindeer. If you leave me feeling hot on Christmas morning. Okay. It was good till the last sentence. I was good till then. I was just thinking of like reindeer eating a pan of lasagna. I would love that. That would be. Maybe like fuck them carrots. I'm going to the Katie's house. She gave me some lasagna. We got some lasagna. I don't know about Santa making me hot though. Yeah. Oh. We might need to forget about that. Okay. That was a good one. And Sarah Buxman. Okay. All right. You got it. Got it. We're going to order 14,000 of them and keep them in my dining room. Don't tell brands. Now, if y'all don't know the real toys they were talking about, let me tell you. That's true. Because these were all on my Christmas wishlist. Cabbage patch dolls. We talked about those in an episode. Rainbow Bright. We haven't done a Rainbow Bright episode yet. This Christmas is happening. No, we didn't. We didn't even talk about a show. No. Okay. Rainbow Bright. Uh, Teddy Ruxpin. He I saw a meme the other day that said if you never put a Metallica tape in your Teddy Ruxpin or something like that. Oh, that's great. Or if you did, it's time for a colonoscopy or something like that. He had an actual tape deck in his back body. In his back. And then pound puppies. And then they came out with pound purries, which were cats. I had so many. They were so cute. They were so cute. I love them all. All right. Okay, that was good. All right, I'm ready. All right. My turn. Back to the 90s. Here we go. Verb. Spank. Oh, we're going big now. We're going big. We're swinging. Silly word. Oh my god. What the hell am I getting? Maybe everyone in here asks that. I don't know. What did I say? Hoot and nanny. Hoot and nanny. How about oh, shenanigans. That's good. Plural noun. Um, bears. Regular noun. Doll. Now I got like toys on my brain. I know. Adjective. Short. Noun. Hair. Verb. Hair's a good. This gets me a little stressed out, I can't lie. I got my fight or flight when I like to try to answer these verbs. I know. I know. What did you say? Part of the body plural. Eyes. Verb. Hate. Plural noun. Buildings. Parts of the body plural. Oh my god, why do I get all these? I know you do. Arms. Verb ending in ing. Sliding. I don't know why I said it like that. Sliding. What's going on? Animal. Animal. We gonna say whale. You'll see. Okay. Adjective. So I said whale. No, I'm thinking of water. Wet. Noun. Um cup. Noun. Jesus kind of lord. How about theater? That's actually good. I got the eyebrow raised. Verb. Uh turn. Turn. Okay. Jeez. That felt hard. I don't know why. This one from the 90s. It's called Give My Regards to Broadway. Okay. Dear readers, I regret to spark you that I am quitting my I didn't say spark. I said spanking. My handwriting's horrible. Let me start over. I censored myself. I was like, well, say spark. Okay, let me try again. Okay, we're ready. Dear readers, I regret to spank you. That's funnier. That I am quitting my job as theater critic for the shenanigans daily news. I've been reviewing plays and bears for over doll years. Oh, for what? I put doll. That should have been a number. Girl. Well, too late. Too late now. You gotta read it the way you wrote it. All right. Well, what you wrote you said noun instead of number. I must have said noun. Sorry. So he's been reviewing plays and bears for a long time. Okay. But I can no longer sit through the short shows appearing on stages across the country. Faithful readers may remember my review of Bring in the Hair, Talk in the Funk. My eyes were ringing so badly, I thought I'd go deaf.

unknown 35:03

What?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

This week I saw a production of Paint, which featured actors banging trash buildings and stopping, stomping their arms. Honestly, I'd go see that. I would too. That sounds amazing. Sign me up. Shakespeare must be sliding in his grave. I mean, he'd probably be sliding in his grave a lot. One show I did enjoy was The Whale King. So I could have just watched the movie. And don't get me started on that wet musical about Bohemians who refuse to pay their cup. If I hear seasons of theater one more time, I'm going to turn up. I can't. That's pretty good, except that I read doll years because I said noun instead of number. I might need my eyes checked. It might be time. Well, you're not wearing glasses today. I have my contacts in. But maybe I need my readers. Yeah. Yeah. That's we're in the bifocal era. Yes. Well, that was fun. These are super fun. I know. They're a good time. I was trying to think if there's a way we can like do them with listeners. I'll think about it. Oh, look how cute. She's a little clueless girl. I can bring them to I can bring them to our trivia night and we can be fun. Maybe we could do that like as like a warm-up before trivia.

unknown 36:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

And people can just shout out an adjective or shout out the town or whatever. Oh, you know what else I got? I'll show you. Show you. Well, it's over there. Hold on. Okay, you can show us then. Um yeah. She's like, wait a minute. Well, what's gonna what is there?

Bonus 80s Trivial Pursuit Questions

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Okay, she's back. Whoa, that was close. Oh, that's so cute. Okay, so I got we have our normal trivia box, but I got these are mini packs of trivial pursuit. You know what made me think of it is when we saw the odd couple or saw our friends perform in that show. And I was like, oh, we need some trivial pursuit questions. So these are decades. Oh fun. They also have 2000s, so that might just be a bonus round. That'd be a fun bonus round. So well, um for our younger. I don't have any skizzers to take to like open it. Yeah. Okay. I hold on. Well, now I want to, so hold on one second. All right. Well, let me show everyone the box if you're just um listening. It's got those like fun, bright 90s geometric shapes and things like that. Okay, she's bringing over the keys. We're just gonna stab it. We're just gonna stab it with the keys. All right. Katie's like, what's it? It's super fun. Why is that? I was not expecting this. So back to Mad Libs for a second while you do that. Uh when you mentioned the themed ones, my daughter is a huge Olivia Rodrigo fan. Oh. So we have an Olivia Rodrigo one. And then I mean, I'm a Taylor Swift fan as well, but one of my daughters was like really into her a couple years ago. So we have a Taylor Swift one. That's fun. It's really, it's really fun. Okay, so we got an 80s mini pack. So let me just see. Let me just let's just take a practice run.

unknown 37:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

They're all taped. Yeah. What's why is everything taped? So stupid, guys. I am like a child when it comes to this would drive my husband absolutely crazy. He cannot stand it when we open stuff because we do not take time to neatly open things. Ugh. Well, look at you. You're doing it right now. No, I'm not. I'd have just ripped it open. Well, Katie. And that's why I'm not doing it. Listen, I'm trying here. You might just be able to peel that one. Have you guys ever heard any more riveting? Riveting content than a person telling someone else how to bags because I cannot. Okay. Ziploc bags. Now there's paper wrapped around it, guys. There's like tape, there's boxes in a box. They are keeping these very secure. Like you have to have paid for this and have 20 minutes to unwrap it to use it. Okay. But okay, I don't think these are like um the regular trivial pursuit. You know how it's categories? Yeah. It's not categories. I think it's just questions. Okay. So it's like three questions a card. Okay. So you ready? I'm ready. Let's do a whole full card. Let's do a whole so three questions. Yeah, good question. All right. She's like, I did math. I did it. All right. What was the name of the code? You're not gonna know this. That required video gamers to press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. My husband would know this. The asteroid code? I don't know. No. Konami code. Okay. I don't remember what that did. And it said, don't forget to press select before start if it's a two-player game. I think I think it was like a cheat code, but I don't probably found in Nintendo Power magazine. Anyway, all right. You might know this one. Okay. The Merrill Street film, Out of Africa, takes place in what country in Eastern Africa? Just give it a guess. I don't think I do know that one, but I'll say I'll say South Africa. Kenya.

unknown 39:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

She's all right. I've never seen that one. Me neither. Um, you'll know this one. What slang term was used for young urban professionals who often dressed in the preppy style and worked in management? Yuppies? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Nice job. I knew the I knew okay. So should should I even take the time to try to open an eight? Let's do 90s like another week, but let me do an 80s one for you. Oh, okay. That way we can have the box open and all the things. Where'd you put the one you just did on the bottom? I don't remember. Yeah, you did. I'll just put it there so we can. This is gonna be our last thing before I beat my pants. Sounds good. I love that. Okay, here we go. We're gonna ask you all three. Ready? What show set in the 1950s features a female duo who live together and work in a brewery in Milwaukee? Laverne and Shirley. Yes. Oh, that's such a good show. You're gonna do it. We're gonna make our dreams come true. There we go. There it is. Doing it all way. I love it. All right. We should never mind. I say we should re record our own version of that. Okay. Oh god. And which classic 80s board game is the object to catch the most bugs with a giant set of tweezers? Oh, Ants My Pants. No, you're close. Bed bugs. Oh, bed bugs. Commercials declared buggy. Yeah. Made by the same people. Oh gosh. What's the last one? That's one of my favorites. I know you'll know this too. I think you will. What 1987 novel by Fanny Flagg is named after a southern dish, takes place at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Alabama and includes recipes. Ride green tomatoes. I thought that Oh, yeah, the novel came out in the 80s. The movie came out in the 90s. Yeah. It was released as a film in 1991 with Kathy Bates. And uh Mary Stewart Masterson. And Whoopi? No. Yeah. Was she in that? No, I don't know. Anyway. Mary's super bad. Okay, we're gonna go. So we gotta wrap that. That was fun though. We've had some long ones lately, so this is good. I hope you enjoyed Mad Libs. Yeah. Uh maybe you were yelling out some adjectives. I know. They're probably like y'all's words are lame. Well probably. Have you met us? And it is like when people I know you have to pee, so I'll say this quickly. When people watch Jeopardy and they get like mad because people don't answer right or buzz in on time, but then when people are on Jeopardy, they're like, I get everything right at home. But when you're like there, you know, second guess yourself, and like you can't ring in fast enough, and and you know it, but you say the wrong thing or whatever. So get nervous. The same.

Final Laughs And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 42:04

All right, guys. We will uh we'll we'll see you next time here on Generation in Between. Bye. And I'm gonna run before being with it. It's not I see I am.