Despite our best efforts to the contrary, Wacky Wordies has become one of the most popular and
enduring features in GAMES. It is, in fact, the puzzle that won't die.
Our first offering of these bits of typographic word play appeared in the July/August 1979 GAMES. They were created
by the GAMES staff as part of an in-house competition, in response to a sheet of puzzles that was going around the country. The puzzle might have ended there if GAMES readers hadn't started sending in their own examples and encouraged us to continue. Soon "Wacky Wordies" was followed by "Wackier Wordies," "Yet Wackier Wordies," and "wackiest Wordies."
At that point, we decided that
Wacky Wordies had finally run their course and announced that we wouldn't print any more. But readers, many of them expressing outrage at our announcement, kept sending them in. As the mail piled up, we capitulated and printed "Beyond Wacky Wordies." Then came "Wacky Wordies Return," "Color Wacky Wordies," "Celebrity Wacky Wordies,"
"Return of Wacky Wordies" (again), and finally, "Wacky Wordies: The Final Chapter."
As new examples continue to arrive even now, several readers have asked, "Where did Wacky Wordies start?" Well, puzzles known as rebuses can be traced back several centuries, and isolated Wacky Wordies can be found in the 16th and 17th centuries. But the first regular appearance of these puzzles apparently was in an American magazine, French Humor (later, Tidbits), where they went by the name "Cuckoo-nuts" and apppeared weekly during 1927-28. The American Magazine continued them as "Patterpics" during the early 1930s. Then Martin Gardner revived them in 1959 as "Wacky Wordies" -- the possible origin of their modern name.
The Wacky Wordies in the GAMES menu called "Wacky Wordies the Early Years (OCT/NOV 1987)" are from the original issues of French Humor and Tidbits. They were sent for our amusement by some readers at Gernsback Publications, in Farmingdale, Long Island, which owns the rights. We think that the distinction of these puzzles as the pioneer Wacky Wordies makes them worth a new showing. -- W.S. (Will Shortz)