Tuesday, November 07, 2006

random spam text -- the madlibs of the Internet generation


So I guess I'm taking it back to the genesis of this here blog with my
latest entry. For those of you who don't remember, the name of this blog came from the subject line of a spam email. I wanted to share some recent ones that cracked me up:

children will up offer brainy lesser endowed primary secondary
level getting students volunteer coaching weaker pupils. Whose job anyway.
cant expected think these things. hard making living keeping house
caring family takes creation but also less can Well many ways Lets look place where home. Ours evolved society has reached stage. Gerai Roadworks clear military
rockers big pals Fuck.

A creaking door hangs longest. A good beginning makes a good ending. He
travels fastest who travels alone A tree never hits an automobile
except in self defense.

the way I wanted to, fool, and all the time you were egging me on
and me through jails and bars. I've had it! He unsnapped the straps of the
pack

eyes upon us until we had passed; then they completely museum resumed
their man policeman shop assistant and no one came. At last preserve
willows are a little thicker. That's the way. You're off!"
thunderclap.


You get the picture. Some are more nonsensical than others. Part of me thinks they are random, because it seems you just couldn't make these up--but if that's the case, how would you explain the nearly logical arrangement of subject and verb and narrative flow that some of these seem to possess? It's as if they've been yanked from a novel and someone's taken the time to muck them up and alter the wording. Perhaps someone's formulated a madlibs-like algorithmic template into which the computer merely drops the words. In any event, I want to be a part of this. My ADD/absurdist leanings might serve me well in this line of work.

3 comments:

Daniel Fan said...

You're much too smart for me. Especially with lines like:
Perhaps someone's formulated a madlibs-like algorithmic template into which the computer merely drops the words.

I like this one: A tree never hits an automobile except in self defense.

KT said...

I think they grab random text from somewhere, because one time I got one that was part of a scene from "The Hobbit."

And then I got embarassed that I was looking at about half a paragraph and text and immediately recognizing it as "The Hobbit." I'm a nerd.

Anyanka said...

Yeah, the algorithms do grab random text from novels. You'll see some Pride and Prejudice here, some Pynchon there...it's very weird and Kafkaesque.