Writing the Ridiculous: How to Craft Killer Prompts and Interpret the Weird

Williams-blogger


 

 Introduction: The Power of Prompts

Prompts are the starting gun in every round of Gartic Phone. They shape the entire chain of chaos, and their quality can make or break the entertainment value of the game. A boring prompt leads to flat gameplay, while a creative one sets off a chain reaction of hilarious misinterpretations, absurd artwork, and side-splitting laughs.

This section is all about becoming a master prompt writer and interpreter. You'll learn:

  • What makes a good (and bad) prompt

  • How to balance clarity and absurdity

  • Tricks to inspire creative prompts

  • Types of prompts and when to use them

  • How to interpret drawings when you're clueless

  • How humor, storytelling, and psychology affect prompt-writing

  • How to play mind games with your friends through clever prompts

Let’s turn your silly sentence into the star of the slideshow.

🧠 What Makes a Great Prompt?

At its core, a great prompt is:

  • Creative: It sparks interesting visuals or concepts.

  • Surprising: It's unexpected, but understandable.

  • Interpretable: It leaves room for imagination or misreading.

  • Draw-able: Even with basic tools and limited time.

🤔 Bad Prompt Examples:

  • "The sky is blue." → Too boring.

  • "Man eats food." → Too vague.

  • "The concept of late-stage capitalism" → Too abstract to draw easily.

✅ Good Prompt Examples:

  • "A giraffe playing the trumpet in a rock band"

  • "Shrek doing yoga on a beach"

  • "A knight asking a dragon for dating advice"

Each of these is:

  • Specific but open to variation

  • Visually distinctive

  • Funny or strange

  • Memorable

🧪 Prompt Chemistry: Balancing the Elements

Great prompts have the right mix of familiar elements and weird twists. Think of it like Mad Libs meets improv comedy.

Here’s a formula you can use:

[Subject] + [Action] + [Twist or Setting]

SubjectActionTwist/Setting
BananaEating spaghettiWhile falling off a cliff
MermaidPlaying chessWith a crab wearing a crown
NinjaDoing yogaIn a Walmart parking lot

Even the most basic subjects (like animals or food) can become hilarious if you change the context or action.

🔥 Prompt Categories and How to Use Them

Let’s break down prompt types and the best situations for each:

1. Absurd Scenario Prompts

Examples:

  • "A toaster having an identity crisis"

  • "Santa Claus in a rap battle with the Easter Bunny"

Why They Work:

  • They invite dramatic art and extreme misinterpretation.

  • Everyone sees something different in an absurd setup.

Tips:

  • Use contradictions or absurd pairings (e.g., serious character in silly action).

  • Include locations or unexpected pairings for extra spice.

2. Pop Culture Mashups

Examples:

  • "SpongeBob fighting Darth Vader"

  • "Taylor Swift riding a dragon to the Grammys"

Why They Work:

  • Everyone recognizes the elements, so drawings are easier to guess.

  • They create a challenge to draw and decipher combinations.

Tips:

  • Use pop culture icons from different universes.

  • Add a twist like a job change (“Batman as a kindergarten teacher”).

3. Pun-Based Prompts

Examples:

  • "Breadwinner literally running with a trophy"

  • "Butterfly made of butter flying through toast"

Why They Work:

  • Puns confuse people in the best way.

  • They often get misinterpreted hilariously.

Tips:

  • Use idioms or figures of speech.

  • Use literal interpretations of metaphors.

4. Emotionally Charged Prompts

Examples:

  • "A raccoon crying after losing his job"

  • "The moon feeling lonely on Valentine's Day"

Why They Work:

  • They allow expressive, emotional drawings.

  • Great for story-driven chains.

Tips:

  • Use simple subjects but dramatic emotional states.

  • Combine emotional adjectives with unexpected nouns.

5. Instructional or Oddly Specific Prompts

Examples:

  • "How to train a turtle to do taxes"

  • "Step 3: Summon a demon using spaghetti"

Why They Work:

  • They parody real-life how-tos and tutorials.

  • Viewers interpret them differently, leading to wild chains.

Tips:

  • Add numbers, like "Step 1," to increase confusion.

  • Combine mundane tasks with fantasy elements.

🧨 Prompt Bombs: Writing Prompts That Intentionally Confuse

Once you're comfortable with creative prompts, you can add some chaos into the mix with prompt bombs—designed to be hard to draw or interpret on purpose.

🌀 Confusion Tricks:

  • Use complex emotional layers (e.g., "a happy clown pretending to be sad but actually scared").

  • Use homophones (e.g., "knight in shining armor" vs. "night in shiny pajamas").

  • Use abstract or surreal imagery (e.g., "a dream dreaming of a nightmare").

These aren’t for every round, but they’re hilarious in small doses.

🧩 How to Interpret Weird Drawings

Even with the best prompts, drawings will inevitably get... bizarre. Here’s how to survive when you receive a mystery scribble that could mean anything.

Step-by-Step Interpretation Guide:

  1. Look for Clues

    • Color choice, objects, expressions, motion lines.

  2. Identify the Focus

    • What’s the central figure? Human? Animal? Machine?

  3. Ask “What’s Happening?”

    • Action lines, arrows, props tell the story.

  4. Take Your Best Guess

    • Don’t be afraid to make something up. Often, your version will be funnier than the truth.

Funny Guessing Technique:

When confused, pick one of each:

  • Who? (Alien, chicken, grandma)

  • Doing what? (Screaming, sleeping, running)

  • Where? (On a volcano, underwater, in school)

Example:
You see a scribble with a stick figure, flames, and squiggly lines. You guess:
“A grandma tap-dancing on a volcano during a heatwave”

Even if it’s wrong, it adds to the chain hilarity.

🧠 The Psychology Behind Prompts

Understanding how your brain—and others’—interpret visuals and language helps with both writing and guessing.

📚 Cognitive Biases at Play:

  • Pareidolia: We see faces in randomness.

  • Anchoring: The first detail influences all following assumptions.

  • Pattern Recognition: We guess based on common shapes or color associations.

Use these to your advantage when writing and interpreting:

  • Start prompts with recognizable objects or faces.

  • Use vivid nouns that activate mental images.

  • Avoid ambiguity unless you're aiming for chaos.

🔄 The Life Cycle of a Prompt

Let’s examine how a prompt mutates from start to finish. Here's an example chain:

  1. Prompt: "A llama DJ at a wedding party"

  2. Drawing 1: A llama with headphones behind turntables

  3. Guess 1: "Goat playing music at a fancy party"

  4. Drawing 2: A goat in a tuxedo with musical notes

  5. Guess 2: "Rich goat conducting an orchestra"

  6. Drawing 3: Goat with baton, music sheets everywhere

  7. Final Caption: "Goat teaching a music class"

It’s telephone meets Picasso. The fun comes not from accuracy, but in the slow collapse of meaning—and how well you can prolong the chaos.

🧪 Prompt-Building Exercises

Want to practice writing great prompts? Try these:

🧱 Build-a-Prompt Generator:

Pick one from each column:

SubjectActionTwist
CatEating pizzaIn a UFO
ChefFightingWith jellyfish
DogSinging operaDuring a tornado
WizardTaking a napOn a trampoline
ChickenProposingOn a rollercoaster

Example result: “A chicken proposing on a rollercoaster.” 🐔🎢💍

🎭 Prompt Remix Game:

Take a normal activity and make it weird.

Normal: “Man eating dinner”
Remixed: “Skeleton eating candlelight dinner with a lobster”

🎓 Advanced Prompt-Writing: The Art of Subtle Chaos

Veterans know how to write prompts that look normal but are secretly chaotic. These cause players to interpret wildly different things:

🕵️ Examples:

  • "The truth is revealed in the sandwich"

  • "That moment when the broom realizes it can fly"

  • "A secret meeting of the onions"

These prompts:

  • Inspire stories instead of scenes

  • Challenge players to use metaphor

  • Cause hilarious breakdowns

🌟 Final Prompt Writing & Interpretation Tips

Do’sDon’ts
Use verbs and action wordsAvoid overly vague topics
Combine unrelated elementsDon’t overuse text-based humor
Reference pop culture sparinglyAvoid hard-to-draw politics
Add twists to common scenariosDon’t use prompts that are too literal
Embrace absurdityAvoid long sentences

🎯 Prompt Creation Challenges

Challenge yourself or friends to create:

  • The most confusing prompt ever

  • The most wholesome prompt

  • A prompt that ends in a twist (e.g., "Shrek at the altar… but it's a trap")

  • A prompt designed to result in a famous meme

🎬 Conclusion: The Story Begins with You

In Gartic Phone, every legendary chain begins with a single ridiculous sentence. Writing good prompts isn’t just a skill—it’s a way to steer the narrative, spark laughter, and unleash the game’s full creative power. And when the game ends, and you scroll through the beautiful, absurd gallery, you’ll realize: the prompt was just the first brushstroke on a collaborative canvas.