ʇxǝʇdʎɹɔ
/Yesterday’s mailbag had me thinking of Cryptext. Before I get to a new idea I had, I want to reiterate a point I’ve made before.
[Taken from an old post…]
There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how to use Cryptext.
Here's Lior Suchard botching it on a recent performance for Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. You only really need to see one still image from the video to make the point.
That's supposed to be Lior revealing his prediction of a number, 38079. But, of course, it doesn't look like a number. It looks like an upside-down word. And that is, in fact, what Kelly is pointing at right there. Lior has to cover up the number partially and then quickly do the final reveal because it's so obvious what is about to happen.
"But it gets a good reaction." Well, Kelly and Ryan give a good "tv presenter" reaction as they are paid to do. But if you look at that video and it looks like a strong human reaction, then you may have a disorder that prevents you from understanding human emotions. (Similarly, pay attention to how much of a dud the pre-show stuff is too. He suggests he's able to get the image of her making-out with a plastic head of Farrah Fawcett and her reaction is, "Hmm... yup.")
Cryptext will always get a good reaction, because it's a fun reveal. But it's a much stronger reveal when the audience doesn't see it coming.
With that in mind, you want your initial word or number to look as genuine as possible. You need to prioritize the look of the first display. Yes, you want the reveal to be as easy to "see" as possible, but not to the extent that they're ahead of you and the ending is blown.
Here’s an example. Here are the numbers written normally.
And here it is flipped over. Perfectly understandable as GLOBE (especially in conext). The numbers didn’t have to be written in some weird, janky style.
I would even suggest it’s actually more fun for the participant to “find” the word in the overturned letters, rather than have it be 100% obvious. It’s completely okay if the reveal looks frankensteined together. That’s what makes it enjoyable. No one will say, “Well, I would have liked it if the number formed my word when it was turned over, but only if it had been presented with proper capitalization and fine calligraphy.”
A reader sent me a spectacularly bad example of Cryptext where the number is essentially indecipherable, and it generated this idea…
This will be great if you’re a guy and you have a long-time girlfriend.
You force an 8-digit number on her via TOXIC or forcing a string of UNO cards or whatever. You have to do it in some manner where you seemingly don’t know what the number is.
Then you say, “I’m going to try and read your mind and figure out the number…. 598… no? Hmm. Okay… uhm… 3303-something-something? That’s not right? Dammit. I guess I screwed that up.”
Then you say, “Oh wait. There’s something I want to show you.” You get down on one knee and pull a hand-made sign out from under the couch. You show it to your long-term girlfriend.
With any luck she will scream with happiness.
You respond: “I’m glad you like the trick.”
She gets confused. You look at her, and then the sign.
“Oh shoot, that’s upside-down…
”Was that your number?” you say, with a big ta-dah gesture,
2-4-1-5-1-1-0-4-1
Then she—likely—beats the shit out of you.
The trick hits harder the longer you’ve been leading her on in this relationship.
Here’s the thing, it’s impossible to surprise someone with “marry me” with that particular font of Cryptext. If you brought that out saying it was numbers, it would just confuse everyone. It’s clearly a word upside down. So instead, go the opposite way and convince your girlfriend/boyfriend you’re proposing.
If you don’t have a significant other, you could “find” a piece of paper with this written on it at a restaurant or something. Then say to your friend, “Someone must have proposed here or something,” and toss it aside.
Later on, ask your friend to test the math skills you’re working on and have him multiply together three 3-digit numbers and to call them out as he does. You concentrate and start writing down the sum you’re getting (forced via Toxic) on a nearby piece of paper (the “marry me” paper), then you stop yourself and say. “Oh, wait. It’s already on here: 241511041.”