History Main / ScrabbleBabble

*** At the beginning, Peggy's teaching Minh how to play Boggle, and the only words we see her come up with are "bametomyam," a Thai spicy noodle soup [[note]] tasty and delicious! [[/note]], and "pad thai," which Peggy couldn't find in the dictionary (we can only assume "bametomyam" was also disqualified).

* If you are ever so lucky as to get the right letters, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy) syzygies]]" and "syzygial" are very real word and is worth a maximum of 302 points. In case you were wondering, it's an astronomical term referring to planetary alignment.

->''"K-W-Y-J-I-B-O. Twenty-two points, plus triple-word score, plus 50 points for using all my letters. Game's over, I'm outta here."''

'''Calvin:''' You do, and I'll look up that 12-letter word ''[[HypocriticalHumor you]]'' played with all the [[NoodleIncident X's and J's]]!"\\

* In "The Gossage-Vardebedian Papers," a story in Creator/WoodyAllen's book ''Getting Even,'' a correspondence chess game becomes chaotic, so one party decides to play correspondence Scrabble instead. He claims to start the game with the word "zanjero," placed on the board for maximum possible points, of course.

* There are a variety of alternate rule sets for Scrabble that encourage making up words. Some HouseRules allow a clearly made-up word if [[RuleOfFunny funny enough]] and in one variant, Lying Bastard Scrabble, players are penalized for playing words that can be found in the dictionary.

* In a scene on ''Series/TheSketchShow'', Lee Mack's tactic is to slip his made-up words into the conversation and explain what they mean before his turn starts. First is "quazoosl", referring to someone being so good looking they become intimidating (the example he gives is Elizabeth Hurley). In a later sketch, he offers Tim Vine a glass of "saxisquith". Tim replies, "Don't even think about it."

'''Jake:''' Bob, I told you, it's an antiquated, tri-masted Meditteranean sailing vessel. (''which is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xebec actual definition]]'')\\

* WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls play a Scrabble-type game in "Super Scramble" (DC issue #64). The words they create are types of monsters that Him manifests as threats to Townsville.

* ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' had this trope in a fake commercial for a special edition Scrabble game as played by Bill Cosby and Little Richard ([[ActingForTwo both played by cast member Aries Spears]]).

* ''Radio/TheBurkissWay'' is characterized by {{parody}}ing other, more successful radio broadcasts of the time and by the long titles it assigns to its slots. So, when the narrators wanted to spoof ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', they changed mocked the latter's alien-sounding names by referring to them as stuff you'd get from leftover ''Scrabble'' tiles. E.g., the constellation Go-And-Upset-Another-Scrabble-Board-Les-I-Need-A-New-Name.* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' primary phase ends with Arthur Dent trying to teach Scrabble to the caveman in order to help them evolve. "The only word they know is 'grunt' and they can't spell it right." Arthur and Ford Prefect use the letters from the Scrabble bag as a random element in coaxing the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything (the answer being 42, which the caveman has pointed out on the board).

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Fanfic/SunsetsLittleTwilight'': Subverted - four of the girls play Scrabble at Applejack's house at one point (Pinkie and Applejack are playing Go Fish in the same room), and both Sunset and Twilight play real words that they have to explain - Sunset's is "Alicorn", which she explains by pointing to Twilight, and Twilight's is "zax", which Rainbow Dash doesn't believe is real even after Applejack says she used one a while back. It's soon confirmed to be a type of cutting tool.

The cast is sitting around playing TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}} ([[BrandX or some obvious knockoff]]) when someone plays a nonsense word and gets called on it. The cheater will be forced to "prove" it's a real word by giving its definition.

* ''ComicStrip/ShermansLagoon'': [[http://shermanslagoon.com/comics/november-27-2007/ While hiding in Hawthorne's crab hole during a typhoon,]] Sherman and Fillmore try to get their minds off the rising tension by playing Scrabble. Fillmore puts down the word "BLSTRCHTX" - which according to him is the noise that Sherman makes when he snores.

Compare BogglesTheMind, when people use real words that reflect what's on their mind.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' primary phase ends with Arthur Dent trying to teach Scrabble to the caveman in order to help them evolve. "The only word they know is 'grunt' and they can't spell it right." Arthur and Ford Prefect use the letters from the Scrabble bag as a random element in coaxing the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything (the answer being 42, which the caveman has pointed out on the board).

** In another strip, Calvin somehow scores 2 points by playing the word "be", despite the letter B being worth three points in Scrabble. (It's technically possible that the B could have been a blank, and he played the 'E' on a double-score tile, but who's counting?) Hobbes counters with "Nucleoplasm", which ''is'' a real word, but it's left unclear how he could spell an 11-letter word in a single turn. (It's possible he could have prefixed "nucleo" to an existing "plasm" on the board, but [[PlayedForLaughs that's not important]].) Hobbes' play is illegal in another way: first, he plays "xygomorphic", Calvin uses the I to play "in", then Hobbes uses the N to play "nucleoplasm". This results in Hobbes spelling "cu", which isn't a word and therefore invalidates "nucleoplasm" by default. Considering he makes up his own Chance cards for Monopoly, they could be using house rules. That or Calvin, being six years old, doesn't understand the rules entirely.

* Ironically, it's been averted by both game shows based off ''Scrabble'': [[Series/{{Scrabble}} the one with Chuck Woolery]] and ''Series/ScrabbleShowdown''.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' has Cliff doing this to Woody in a game of Boggle.

* Subverted in ''Literature/VanishingActs'' by Creator/JodiPicoult. [[{{Nerd}} Fitz]] uses the word "linn" in Scrabble, which the the other players call him out on. It is a word that means "waterfall". After this, Delia and Eric read the dictionary so they can beat him, and their scrabble board is filled with words such as larum, girn, ghat, revet and valgus. Fitz eventually wins the game by using the word "fungible" on a triple word score.

* In ''Series/{{Webster}}'', George plays BOYRDEE. (Ironically, he does this after challenging Katherine's word, with turns out to be a real word.) Both Webster and Gramps suggest that Katherine challenge this one too, but the scene ends a minute later.

** Calvin plays "Zqfmgb" on a Double Word Score box for [[UpToEleven 957 points]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'' episode "Share-A-Lair" features "Schmoodled", which is then used later in the episode.

* ''Series/ThreesCompany'' - Jack plays the word "Zixik" and claims that it means "an Abyssinian nose-flute." Janet doesn't buy it and awards him no points. Jack tries to get Chrissy on his side by asking her if she knows what it means, but she reveals that she only "knows" because she heard Jack's definition.

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': Moss successfully plays "TNETENNBA" on an episode of ''Series/{{Countdown}}''. A real ''Countdown'' contestant referenced this when he wore a T-shirt with the line "Good morning, that's a nice TNETENNBA" on it. [[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/good-morning-thats-a-nice-tnetennba-countdown-hero-wears-it-crowd-tshirt-onair-9868172.html]]

* ''Series/{{Justified}}: Wynn Duffy and Mikey are playing scrabble, and Mikey plays "aplex":

-->'''Stuart''': How did you get so many Q's-
-->'''Shaq:''' Don't worry about it.
** And then called back in a later ad in which Shaq takes his opponents into the desert, and actually shows them a Shaqtus... a cactus with Shaq's face and number carved on it. And it has a definition: "Shaqtus" a cactus native to[[note]]teams Shaq had played for at the time[[/note]] Arizona,[[note]]Phoenix Suns[[/note]] Southern California[[note]]Los Angeles Lakers[[/note]] and Florida.[[note]]Orlando Magic, Miami Heat[[/note]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers And Ohio]].[[note]]Cleveland Cavaliers[[/note]]

* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'': At the end of the episode "Repairs", most of Coulson's team are playing Scrabble (or at least, [=UpWords=]). Simmons plays "[[WhatTheHeckIsAnAglet aglet]]", which the others protest isn't word. Settled when Skye looks it up online.

* In ''Watchers'' by Creator/DeanKoontz, a significant shift in Nora's personality and her relationship with Travis is signaled by her joking with him by playing such fictitious words as "dofnup" (she claims it's a logger's nightcap) and "hurkey" (claiming it's a dish made with both ham and turkey).