"Give a board game as a present? What am I, lame?" Well, imaginary blog reader person, I don't know. You may be totally lame. However, I do know that giving Mad Gab will not MAKE you lame, it'll make you the coolest guy at the party. Other than Steve. Steve is super cool.

Mad Gab, unlike other BORED games (get it? I am enormously clever) is actually a ton of fun, and won't make a party stop in it's tracks. Basically, each team of players has a very small amount of time to read a phrase on a card, which is a common (or sometimes totally uncommon) mishearing of a phrase. You repeat the phrase as fast as you can, as many times as you can, until you figure out what the actual phrase is. For example, "Canoe Key Pace He Grit," becomes "Can You Keep a Secret?" It's actually simultaneously easier, and more difficult than you think it is.

And now, two fun-facts, free of charge:

1) Mad Gab's puzzles are actually known as mondegreens, which are mishearings of common phrases.

2) The term mondegreen is actually a mondegreen itself. It comes from an article in Harper's Magazine, where the author wrote about mis-remembering a line of a favorite childhood poem, "and laid him on green," as "and Lady Mondegreen."

See? Weren't those facts fun? Didn't think you were going to learn something today, did you?

Mad Gab is available at your finer toy stores everywhere, though you can pick it up at Amazon, cause, you know, you're an adult. And, it will only set you back about Night Teen Doll Hers. See? I told youI was enormously clever. Take that, STEVE.