311 points

September 22, 2004 5:17 AM

CRAZIEST = 311 points Scrabble can seriously affect your mental health. [Flash]
posted by lagado (36 comments total)

This is a great tale. I was riveted the entire 8 minutes. Thanks!
posted by glenwood at 5:26 AM on September 22, 2004

Yeah, top stuff
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:42 AM on September 22, 2004

Wow. That's all I can say. The other one on that site is pretty good as well. I'm impressed with the quality of writing and the interesting flash to accompany it.

But these people are definatly wackos and not to be trusted.
posted by psychotic_venom at 5:45 AM on September 22, 2004

haha i love it
posted by mrplab at 5:51 AM on September 22, 2004

that's teh craziest!

and yeah, wow!
posted by kamylyon at 5:55 AM on September 22, 2004

That was so marvelous! I was amused, then touched, then enthralled.

Also, for a great book on scrabble mania, I highly recommend Word Freak.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:02 AM on September 22, 2004

This whole vidlit thing is pretty nifty, actually. The other story is great. As is the Editor's Notes.
posted by glenwood at 6:12 AM on September 22, 2004

I wish there was a way to pause and run this back. At the point where she flops the dictionary on the table, and words start floating by, I could have sworn I saw a misspelling: "bromiliad" instead of "bromeliad."
posted by JanetLand at 6:19 AM on September 22, 2004

Janetland: you did.
I was confused by that too.
googling : Results 1 - 10 of about 1,950 for bromiliad
Then asks if you meant bromeliad...

Scrabble: it's all about the spelling.
posted by kamylyon at 6:38 AM on September 22, 2004

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
posted by taz at 6:40 AM on September 22, 2004

Best animated story I've seen in awhile.
posted by Dagobert at 7:16 AM on September 22, 2004

That's incredible, simply amazing.
posted by mkhall at 7:31 AM on September 22, 2004

Holy shit. I am totally going to rip off that format. Fuck blogging.
posted by Stan Chin at 7:36 AM on September 22, 2004

Minor quibble: Correct me if I'm wrong, but you only get the 50 bonus points if you use all eight of your letters. If she was going to use her opponent's S, it would have been worth "only" 261.
posted by jpoulos at 7:46 AM on September 22, 2004

There's only 7 letters in the rack jpoulos. She did use all her tiles.
posted by AstroGuy at 7:48 AM on September 22, 2004

HA! I've been playing Scrabble on my Palm for months and I didn't realize that.

* Make "L" sign on forehead *
posted by jpoulos at 8:13 AM on September 22, 2004

Was I the only one really bored by that? I waited what seemed like 10 minutes and gave up before the end..
posted by Orange Goblin at 8:29 AM on September 22, 2004

Isn't the first q without you word invalid for normal scrabble play (ie. because it's a proper noun)?
posted by drezdn at 9:05 AM on September 22, 2004

I watched the whole thing, which rarely happens. But I must say, the flash was a little on the nose. I'd like to see some more artful touches in the future.
posted by eperker at 9:06 AM on September 22, 2004

Yes, Orange Goblin; you were the only one. This was nifty.
posted by ook at 9:52 AM on September 22, 2004

Isn't the first q without you word invalid for normal scrabble play (ie. because it's a proper noun)?

Nope. It's not a proper noun. Here are the "sweet 16".
posted by AstroGuy at 10:06 AM on September 22, 2004

I enjoyed it. Although, I was waiting for an additional revelation of some sort... some neat little oddity of Scrabble perhaps.
posted by Witty at 10:08 AM on September 22, 2004

Well done.

But, do they have too much time on their hands to make it, or do I for watching it?
posted by szg8 at 10:19 AM on September 22, 2004

He spells out the word "ADIEUS" and then dies? That's creepy, man.
posted by Down10 at 10:24 AM on September 22, 2004

Superb stuff.
posted by chrid at 10:29 AM on September 22, 2004

Wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you lagado.

I haven't read Word Freak because, frankly, if I get any more interested in Scrabble it'll become a lifestyle, and this does not seem like a good idea. But in support of CunningLinguist, the word on Freak Street is that it's very good.
posted by melissa may at 10:41 AM on September 22, 2004

I'll cocur with OrangeGoblin. I was all into it at first, but it just reached a point where they were trying too hard, in my eyes. The credits rolled, and I thought, "That's it?" Not that it wasn't well told, or that the format was bad, but the story just lacked enough "oomph" to get me riveted.
posted by Mach3avelli at 10:57 AM on September 22, 2004

I thought the story and narration were interesting, but the Flash, with its cutesy '50s clip art and incongruous animations (the "stray bullet" left an especially bad taste), was just too.... precious. Felt like PRI's This American Life gone all hip and ironic.
posted by delapohl at 11:20 AM on September 22, 2004

He spells out the word "ADIEUS" and then dies? That's creepy, man.

And the thing is, she probably wouldn't have gotten the triple triple anyway. He couldn't have been finished with his turn -- if he's any kind of a decent scrabble player, he was going to spell more than ADIEUS -- that was probably the first letter of another word going horizontally that would have gotten him a triple word score, though not the triple triple.
posted by JanetLand at 11:32 AM on September 22, 2004

I haven't read Word Freak because, frankly, if I get any more interested in Scrabble it'll become a lifestyle

Melissa, my reaction to the book was fascination - but tinged with a little horror. Unless memorizing long lists of words for years on end holds some sort of creeping appeal for you, I'd say you can read the book in safety.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:10 PM on September 22, 2004

It's like π for people who hate numbers!

Seriously, pretty good stuff. Kudos.
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:10 PM on September 22, 2004

Huh? That was it? It felt like a nice long build-up to whatever the interesting part was going to be, and then bam! credits, and it's done.

Also, that "sweet 16" list just destroyed all interest I had in learning to play Scrabble. I mean, seriously: "qanats"? "qindarkas"? This is supposed to be English? Why not throw in qanuippit, gqithapha, and tachaqqaq while we're at it?
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:04 PM on September 22, 2004

Has anyone else read Bee Season? Did this story strike anyone who did as being exactly like it, told in Flash, only without Hare Krishnas and nymphomaniacs?
posted by grrarrgh00 at 6:50 PM on September 22, 2004

Fabulous! Shared with all my Scabble-obsessed friends.

Great find, lagado!
posted by somethingotherthan at 8:20 PM on September 22, 2004

grr, I did read Bee Season, and I did think of it. during the story.

Then again, in my experience, every story or film that deals with Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, and obsessive word play has an inevitable outcome: bizarre symbols start flying around like the fish at Fulton Market. And then the Fool Who Dared to Nose Around Looking for the Name of God dies, or wanders around wordlessly, a shattered husk chased by gangster rabbis.

(Well, there are slight variations, but death or husk are your basic options.)
posted by melissa may at 8:58 PM on September 22, 2004

This doesn't bode well for Madonna then, does it?

...bizarre symbols start flying around like the fish at Fulton Market.
Heh. I never considered that a film cliché until now.
posted by Down10 at 12:28 AM on September 23, 2004