History Main / BogglesTheMind

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants": Bart became friends with a girl; all her words on the grid were love-related. We then see Bart put down the word "Oblivious".

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Arthur in ''[[Franchise/HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe]]'', when he uses random drawing from a scrabble bag to try to reveal the Ultimate Question in his subconscious.

* Played with in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force. Especially when his opponent makes an impossible move and the Doctor points out the continuity error.

--> '''Ashley:''' "You have to stop thinking about Lisa."

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* Played with in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force. Especially when his opponent makes an impossible move and the Doctor points out the continuity error.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

----

* Invoked by Ted in ''HowIMetYourMother'', trying to broach the subject of whether Robin has ever been married.

In fiction, however, Scrabble tiles are magic [[InkBlotTest Rorschach's Ink Blot]] style windows to the soul. If we see characters playing a word game, then either the word being played, the ''only'' word the character can make, or ''every'' word on the board will somehow relate to things that are on their mind. Alternatively the words will {{foreshadow}} events they are unaware of. The game in question [[SmallReferencePools will usually be Scrabble]], but not necessarily - other games that can be used include [[CrosswordPuzzle crosswords]], [[SignificantAnagram anagrams]], ''{{Countdown}}'', or any other word game.

----

* In AlfredHitchcock's ''{{Suspicion}}'', the characters are playing "anagrams" when Lina notices that Johnny's tiles spell out "murder."

* [[http://www.hirezfox.com/jimrob/afbh/albionfuzz/af14.html This strip]] of ''AlbionFuzz''

----

-->-- Series/FreshPrinceOfBelAir

-->-- FreshPrinceOfBelAir

In fiction, however, Scrabble tiles are magic Rorschach's Ink Blot style windows to the soul. If we see characters playing a word game, then either the word being played, the ''only'' word the character can make, or ''every'' word on the board will somehow relate to things that are on their mind. Alternatively the words will {{foreshadow}} events they are unaware of. The game in question [[SmallReferencePools will usually be Scrabble]], but not necessarily - other games that can be used include [[CrosswordPuzzle crosswords]], [[SignificantAnagram anagrams]], ''{{Countdown}}'', or any other word game.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Arthur in ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe]]'', when he uses random drawing from a scrabble bag to try to reveal the Ultimate Question in his subconscious.

* Lampshaded on ''FatherTed''; He rages that his arch-nemesis Dick Byrne ''must'' have cheated when he spelt out "useless, priest, cant, say, mass".''

* In the ''{{Spaced}}'' episode "Epiphanies", when Tim and Daisy get into a Scrabble-tile-throwing fight after an argument over whether "{{Shazam}}" or "[[MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus Pro-V]]" counted as words, Daisy notices that the last 4 tiles they threw at each other spelt "Fuck". Tim asks her what she thinks that means, hinting at the couple's {{UST}}.

* One episode of ''[[StargateSG1 Stargate SG-1]]'' had O'Neill doing a crossword after downloading the Ancient database into his head (again) as he waits for his subconcious to gain access to the knowledge, including where the MacGuffin they need is. Dr Jackson notices he's been unconciously filling in answers in Ancient, and theorises that these are clues to where they need to go (he's right). Carter remains skeptical because he also [[BunnyEarsLawyer filled in 'celestial body' as 'Uma Therman']].

* Peggy Hill does this with Boggle in ''KingOfTheHill'' ("Sad", "Bad", "Man", "Abandoned", "Abandons"...)
* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants": Bart became friends with a girl; all her words on the grid were love-related. We then see Bart put down the word "Oblivious".

* ''FamilyGuy'' had Stewie subconsciously spelling "My darling Janet" with alphabet blocks. When he realizes what he's done, he knocks over the blocks, causing them to spell "I long for you." He knocks them over again, spelling "Ride that pony." He seems okay with that one, apparently not seeing the innuendo behind it.
* ''AmericanDad'' had an episode where Stan tries to have a romantic date with Francine while also taking care of his boss's prostitute. At one point Stan and Francine are playing Scrabble, and Francine is the one who points out that Stan can play words like "man", "takes", "smokes", "to", "skank", "across", and "lake".

* ''FamilyGuy'' had Stewie subconsciously spelling "My darling Janet" with alphabet blocks. When he realizes what he's done, he knocks over the blocks, causing them to spell "I long for you." He knocks them over again, spelling "Ride that pony."

** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint NASA is both an abbreveation and a proper noun so shouldn't be allowed.]]

* Played with in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force.

* According to the author of ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'', whenever he plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for words like "Clitoris."

* Lampshaded on ''FatherTed''; He rages that his arch-nemesis ''must'' have cheated when he spelt out "useless, priest, cant, say, mass".''
** Also evidencing a [[PingPongNaivete surprisingly clever]] bit of LoopholeAbuse in substituting the real word "cant" for the illegal abbreviation "can't". But that might be overthinking the joke...

* In the ''{{Spaced}}'' episode "Epiphanies", when Tim and Daisy get into a Scrabble-tile-throwing fight after an argument over whether "{{Shazam}}" or "[[MenBuyFromMarsWomenBuyFromVenus Pro-V]]" counted as words, Daisy notices that the last 4 tiles they threw at each other spelt "Fuck". Tim asks her what she thinks that means, hinting at the couples {{UST}}.

* Patrick Bateman fills in a crossword with some rather... sketchy answers in ''AmericanPsycho''. Of course, with the UnreliableNarrator and frequent hallucinations it's entirely possible they were the right answers, or at least that he though they were.

* According to the author of ''{{XKCD}}'', whenever he plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for words like "Clitoris."

* In the movie ''Film/FoulPlay'', the old ladies are playing Scrabble when we see that all their words are "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean dirty]]".

!!Examples

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Arthur in ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe]]'', when he uses random drawing from a scrabble bag to try to reveal the Ultimate Question in his subconscious.
* Peggy Hill does this with Boggle in ''KingOfTheHill'' ("Sad", "Bad", "Man", "Abandoned", "Abandons"...)
* [[http://www.hirezfox.com/jimrob/afbh/albionfuzz/af14.html This strip]] of ''Albion Fuzz''
* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants": Bart became friends with a girl; all her words on the grid were love-related. We then see Bart put down the word "Oblivious".
** There was another one in the episode where Maude Flanders died: Ned plays a game against himself, with all the words being about loneliness. And "horny".
* In AlfredHitchcock's ''Suspicion'', the characters are playing "anagrams" when Lina notices that Johnny's tiles spell out "murder."
* Lampshaded on ''FatherTed''; He rages that his arch-nemesis ''must'' have cheated when he spelt out "useless, priest, cant, say, mass".''
** Also evidencing a [[PingPongNaivete surprisingly clever]] bit of LoopholeAbuse in substituting the real word "cant" for the illegal abbreviation "can't". But that might be overthinking the joke...

* Played with in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force.

* At the US Space and Rocket Center in Alabama, there's a restored trailer where lunar astronauts were quarantined, complete with a vintage Scrabble board. The restoration people had some fun and spelled out "Lander", "Rover" and "NASA" in the tiles on the board.
* ''FamilyGuy'' had Stewie subconsciously spelling "My darling Janet" with alphabet blocks. When he realizes what he's done, he knocks over the blocks, causing them to spell "I long for you." He knocks them over again, spelling "Ride that pony."

* According to the author of ''{{XKCD}}'', whenever he plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for words like "Clitoris."
* An episode of ''Benson'' had [[GrimReaper Death]] taking part in a game of TrivialPursuit. ''Every'' question he got had some relation to death -- the name of Jerry Garcia's band, for instance. Benson accused him of cheating, but he denied it, saying, "You've heard it said, 'He cheated Death," but no one has ever said, 'Death cheated ''him''!'"

* Patrick Bateman fills in a crossword with some rather... sketchy answers in ''AmericanPsycho''. Of course, with the UnreliableNarrator and frequent hallucinations it's entirely possible they were the right answers, or at least that he though they were.

<<|ComedyTropes|>>
<<|JustForPun|>>

* In the movie ''{{Foul Play}}'', the old ladies are playing Scrabble when we see that all their words are "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean dirty]]".

* According to the author of ''{{XKCD}}'', whenever he plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for "Clitoris."

* Played with in the ''DoctorWho'' [[VirginNewAdventures New Adventures]] novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force.

In RealLife, people playing {{Scrabble}} generally try to play the highest-scoring word they can, or failing that, ''any'' word they can find. [[{{Kwyjibo}} Even if it's not, strictly speaking, real.]] The opportunity to put down meaningful words is sharply limited by the random letter draws that occasionally leave players with nothing but consonants, or four E's, or similarly useless combinations, and even if you can form a relevant word, there still might not be a place on the board where it can go. [[AwesomeButImpractical Still, it's fun if you can pull it off.]]

** There was another one in the episode where Maude Flanders died: Ned plays a game against himself, with all the words being about loneliness.

* Lampshaded on ''FatherTed'';
-->''"I don't know how he did it, but he did "stupid, priest, cant, say, mass".''

* Played with in the ''DoctorWho'' ExpandedUniverse novel ''Conundrum'', in which the Doctor and another character play a game of Scrabble in which every word is significant--and the Doctor immediately points to this as a sign that their actions are being controlled by an outside force.

In RealLife, people playing {{Scrabble}} generally try to play the highest-scoring word they can, or failing that, ''any'' word they can find. [[{{Kwyjibo}} Even if it's not, strictly speaking, real.]] The opportunity to put down meaningful words is sharply limited by the random letter draws that occasionally leave players with nothing but consonants, or four E's, or similarly useless combinations, and even if you can form a relevant word, there still might not be a place on the board where it can go.

In fiction, however, Scrabble tiles are magic Rorschach's Ink Blot style windows to the soul. If we see characters playing a word game ([[SmallReferencePools generally Scrabble]], but not necessarily), either the word being played, the ''only'' word the character can make, or ''every'' word on the board will somehow relate to things that are on their mind, or possibly foreshadow events they are unaware of. Other possibilities are [[CrosswordPuzzle crosswords]], [[SignificantAnagram anagrams]], ''{{Countdown}}'', or any other word game.