A computer "mad libs" program generates nonsense phrases. Players compete to search the Web for images which they feel best capture the phrase.

Perhaps the photos are judged, or perhaps this is more like "Pictionary", and the objective is to submit the URL to your partner (who does not know the phrase and cannot talk to you) so they can guess the phrase.

Perhaps the phrases are not automatically generated, but (again like "Pictionary") selected from a list of funny phrases.

Inspiration: "crotch elephant" (see links).

Example phrases (words selected at random from a dictionary): "cylindrical city", "vaudeville pinochle", "pooch pole", "aqueous moon".
-- egnor, Jun 08 2001

Crotch Elephant: the photo http://www.tip.net....inting/elephant.jpg
[waugsqueke] wins that one, hands down. [egnor, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Holiday slug http://www.geocitie.../holiday_music.html
Not an image, as such, but it "conjures" one....? [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

explodingdog http://www.explodingdog.com/
Sam draws pictures from phrases people submit. Strangely entertaining. [egnor, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Holiday slug http://www.obsse.com/dec00-1.html
The X-files inspires the actual image -- toward the bottom... [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(?) aggression in repose http://www.thomassa.../pages/daysof2.html
Sleeping Soldier [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(??) "snake paper" http://www.geocitie...tosa/KCAD-Pic03.jpg
Damn, waugie beat me to it. [egnor, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Gigantic Sheep Farmer http://www.agripict.../images/1012135.htm
Gigantic, but by trick of perspective.... let's see you do better [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(??) winged toe nails http://www.teleport.../sample/banding.htm
Second picture from the bottom... Look at those toenails! [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(???) On a Tuesday, a Tuesday, but only overboard! http://www.macworld...otogallery/tuesday/
Tuesday's MacWorld online: Last row of photos, first from left: people going a bit "overboard" [globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(???) Tiger Rod http://www.isiaz.com/TIGeR.htm
The opposite of Rod's Tiger [goff, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(???) Inflatable Car http://www.theentir...ore/product157.html
As its name suggests... [goff, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

(???) Spider Goat picture http://web.tiscali.it/sculptus/ragno.html
Not as good as I thought. [Spidergoat, Jun 08 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

I like this too, but it needs to be a separate website.

For each word pair (before knowing the pair), you register as either a spy or an analyst. The spy submits image links, given the phrase; the analyst submits phrases, given the image links.

When an analyst guesses correctly after seeing an image, both the analyst and the spy who got the image get points proportional to the time the phrase has been up.

Past images and their guesses are available for the perusal of the amused public.

Cheating: People will try to cheat by creating images that spell out the words; there needs to be some way of catching that. People will try to cheat by checking the site that an image is from for phrases; I don't know whether that's worth preventing. People will also try to create images that enact the term; that, I think, should be encouraged.

Copyright issues: Hm. Tricky. You'd want the pictures to be inlined, and I don't think the courts will listen to "but it's not served from my site! I just link to it! It's the browser that makes it into one piece!" On the other hand, the whole game is probably too small to get onto anyone's radar, and you can always filter out images whose use people complain about.
-- jutta, Jun 08 2001


"Analyst" and "spy" -- neat. You get to see the other photos before deciding which you want to be...

I was thinking the image URLs would be blinded (the images served by proxy), but then that removes the "linking" defense (for what that's worth).

Creating images that enact the term makes it a different game, I think.
-- egnor, Jun 08 2001


holiday slugs,snake paper,gigantic sheep farmer,winged toe nails.
-- technobadger, Jun 08 2001


aggression in repose
weeping alacrity
filch with two
never, never, never sigh
On a Tuesday, a Tuesday, but only overboard!
'twas brillig
-- beauxeault, Jun 08 2001


This one and "collaborative web fiction" in the same week! I'd pay more for the web if egnor ran it. A plentitude of pastry for you sir.
-- beauxeault, Jun 08 2001


The game in Galactic Pot-Healer involves machine translation, not web searches by people, and text, not images; it's really no closer to the suggestion than any other charade.
-- jutta, Jun 08 2001


shadowy marksmanship
unruly agriculture
Martian spleen box
global tourniquet
abominable nougat

-- globaltourniquet, Jun 08 2001


What's a game that does have "real intellectual content"?

Searching for images is actually rather tricky. You can't usually just type the search keywords in directly; you have to think about where an image that captures something like the concept would be likely to occur.
-- egnor, Jun 09 2001


[ravenswood]

Um, stretch. And that's such a hideous "curio" that I think I'll reject your find on those grounds alone. Perhaps think Marvin(TM)....The "Uranium 236 Explosive Space Modulator" might be called a box of spleen, in the metaphorical sense....
-- globaltourniquet, Jun 09 2001


I never did know exactly what Marvin was saying there waug. I knew *someone* here would know...
-- globaltourniquet, Jun 11 2001


Spooky! I found a Spider Goat! (other than the usual goat with spider web milk stories).
-- Spidergoat, Jun 13 2001



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