History Main / BogglesTheMind

Name is, [[AsYouKnow of course]], a [[JustForPun pun]] on the board game TabletopGame/{{Boggle}}.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Your Shoe's Untied" had greedy Mr. Krabs literally filling in every answer of a crossword with "money."

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'', when Ted, who is preoccupied with trying to find a tree, plays Scrabble with his mother and grandmother, and spells, "tree".

SubTrope of CharacterDrivenStrategy. Related tropes include FreudianSlip and AnxietyDreams.

In RealLife, people playing TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}} generally try to play the highest-scoring word they can, or failing that, ''any'' word they can find. [[ScrabbleBabble Even if it's not, strictly speaking, real.]]

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]], ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', or any other word game.

[[folder:Films - Animation]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* According to [[http://www.xkcd.com/492/ this strip]] of ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'', whenever the author plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for words like "Clitoris".

* Turned sideways in the technothriller ''Interface,'' where a woman blatantly creates sentences from her hand and the bag to send messages to half of her father's brain. (The other half just thinks she's cheating.)
* In ''The Mask'', by Creator/DeanKoontz, Paul is seriously unnerved when he's playing Scrabble with Carol and Jane, and all the words are violent ones. Except for Carol's name.

Related tropes include FreudianSlip and AnxietyDreams.

Name is, [[AsYouKnow of course]], a [[JustForPun pun]] on the board game Boggle.

[[folder: Film ]]
* In Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/{{Suspicion}}'', the characters are playing "anagrams" when Lina notices that Johnny's tiles spell out "murder."
* Not exactly this but in ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'' the characters give up on their game of Scrabble and start using the tiles to work out anagrams of Setec Astronomy. After a couple of funny misfires (including Cooty's Rat Semen), they arrive at 'Too Many Secrets'.
* In the movie ''Film/FoulPlay'', the old ladies are playing Scrabble when we see that all their words are "dirty".
* Inverted in ''Film/HotFuzz''. Angel and Joyce shout "fascist" and "hag" at each other, with their mutual loathing seemingly coming from nowhere - before it's revealed they're just solving a crossword.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} by Arthur in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', when he uses random drawing from a Scrabble bag to try to reveal the Ultimate Question in his subconscious. It does result in a meaningful sentence, [[spoiler:but it's the wrong question--"WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE". While Creator/DouglasAdams may be a sad case, [[WordOfGod he doesn't make jokes in base-13]].]]
* Played with in the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' 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.

* In ''The Mask'', by Creator/DeanKoontz, Paul is seriously unnerved when he's playing Scrabble with Carol and Jane, and all the words are violent ones. Except for Carol's name.
* Turned sideways in the technothriller ''Interface,'' where a woman blatantly creates sentences from her hand and the bag to send messages to half of her father's brain. (The other half just thinks she's cheating.)

* ''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 take the word "us" and put down the word "Oblivious".

* ''WesternAnimation/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.
* ''WesternAnimation/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".

'''Will:''' I am not thinking about Lisa. D-U-M-P-E-D. Dumped.\\

* Subverted in ''Film/HotFuzz''. Angel and Joyce shout "fascist" and "hag" at each other, with their mutual loathing seemingly coming from nowhere - before it's revealed they're just solving a crossword.

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]], ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', or any other word game.

* Not exactly this but in ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'' the characters give up on their game of Scrabble and start using the tiles to work out anagrams of Setec Astronomy. After a couple of funny misfires (including Cooty's Rat Semen) they arrive at 'Too Many Secrets'.

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

* There's a short story where the ghost of a murdered Scrabble player takes control of which letters two living players draw in order to spell out the location of her remains.

* Turned sideways in the technothriller ''Interface,'' where a woman blatantly creates sentences from her hand and the bag in order to send messages to half of her father's brain. (The other half just thinks she's cheating.)

* ''Series/DarkAngel'': Max, due to having cat DNA, has periods of heightened sex drive (she is effectively "in heat"). During one of these periods, she is playing Scrabble with Original Cindy, who points out that every word Max has used is a DoubleEntendre, except for one "... which I won't say, since I kiss my momma with this mouth."

* One episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' 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 Thurman"]].

--->'''Mr. Krabs''': A five letter word for happiness... "''money''".

--> '''Ashley:''' You have to stop thinking about Lisa.
--> '''Will:''' I am not thinking about Lisa. D-U-M-P-E-D. Dumped.
--> '''Ashley:''' Right. And before that you had Sad. Lonely. And Pathetic.
--> '''Carlton:''' No Ashley, that's me. I'm Pathetic.

** Officially, "NASA" is an illegal move because it's a proper name.

* One ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode had greedy Mr. Krabs literally filling in every answer of a crossword with "money."
--->'''Mr. Krabs''': A five letter word for happiness. "''Money''".

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': In the "Houseboat" episode, Kitty and Abe are having martial problems so the scrabble board that they are playing on is filled with words like "suffocate", "moron", "dislike" and "therapy".

* Lampshaded on ''Series/FatherTed''; He rages that his arch-nemesis Dick Byrne ''must'' have cheated when he spelt out "useless, priest, cant, say, mass".''
** Also evidencing a clever bit of LoopholeAbuse in substituting the real word "cant" for the illegal abbreviation "can't". But that might be overthinking the joke...
* Done in ''Series/{{Skins}}'', where the recovering anorexic Cassie and one of her loony bin mates are playing and the whole board is covered in foods.
* In the ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' episode "Epiphanies", when Tim and Daisy get into a Scrabble-tile-throwing fight after an argument over whether "Comicbook/{{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}}.
** A crossword semi-example from another episode;
-->'''Guard:''' Three letters; to walk quickly, manage or oversee.\\
''[alarm sounds]''\\
'''Mike:''' Run!

* One episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' 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 Thurman"]].

* ''Series/DarkAngel'': Max, due to having cat DNA, has periods of heightened sex drive (she is effectively "in heat"). During one of these periods, she is playing Scrabble with Original Cindy, who points out that every word Max has used is a DoubleEntendre, except for one "... which I won't say, since I kiss my momma with this mouth."

* The ''Series/That70sShow'' episode "Burning Down the House" has Red, Kitty, Bob, and Midge playing Scrabble, all of them now knowing that Bob wears a toupée. Accordingly, Red's tiles spell "BALDING," Kitty's spell "A BAD RUG," and Bob's spell "SHOOT ME."[[note]]Midge's spell "[[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers ZYGOTES]]," in case you were wondering.[[/note]] Later, Red also puts tiles on the board to spell "CUEBALL."

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Storm in the Room", Connie is nervously waiting for her mom to pick her up from Steven's house. She's hours late, and not answering her cell phone. Steven tries to take Connie's mind off things with a game of Mad Libs, but Connie's growing anxiety causes her to start picking words like "accidental" and "explosion".

* Crossword setter Araucaria of the [[BritishNewspapers Grauniad]] used his [[http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25842 cryptic crossword 25842]] to announce that he had "18 down of the 19, which is being treated with 13 15". The crossword also contained several other references to his treatment.

* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Arthur in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', when he uses random drawing from a Scrabble bag to try to reveal the Ultimate Question in his subconscious. It does result in a meaningful sentence, [[spoiler:but it's the wrong question--"WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE". While Creator/DouglasAdams may be a sad case, [[WordOfGod he doesn't make jokes in base-13]].]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* According to [[http://www.xkcd.com/492/ this strip]] of ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}'', whenever the author plays Scrabble with his girlfriend's mother, he always gets the letters for words like "Clitoris."

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Storm in the Room", Connie is nervously waiting for her mom to pick her up from Steven's house. She's hours late, and answering her cell phone. Steven tries to take Connie's mind off things with a game of Mad Libs, but Connie's growing anxiety causes her to start picking words like "accidental" and "explosion".