Why? Who? What?
BackMARS · 2024
"Droodles are small silly drawings in a square box that you don't understand until you ask, and then it's too late to wish you hadn't."
What is a droodle?
A droodle is a small abstract drawing with a deadpan caption that does not explain what you are looking at. The joke happens in the gap between the two: a few black lines, a punchline, an answer that is either obvious in retrospect or completely impossible. The form was invented by Roger Price in 1953 and published in several books across the decade.
Who was Roger Price?
A comedian, writer, and editor who specialized in formally constrained absurdity. He designed droodles to invite multiple interpretations from minimal input. He also co-created Mad Libs, which shares the same instinct: small, tightly-bounded nonsense produces more laughter per page than almost anything else.
Why this game?
Because the droodles deserve a wider audience than the secondhand book market gives them. Match a drawing to its caption. Some are pure geometry. Some are weirdly profound. None of them can be solved by reasoning.
Droodles © the estate of Roger Price (1918-1990). This is a non-commercial tribute. If you enjoy them, buy the Droodles Compendium.