Progressive Anagram Tool

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Here’s an excellent tool for generating Progressive Anagrams, created by supporter Glen S.

I call it the Glen S. Progressive Anagram Tool. Or G-SPAT.

The G-SPAT is not a myth. With proper technique, the G-SPAT can generate immense pleasure.

While I’ve used some other progressive anagram tools in the past, this one strikes the right balance of ease of use and customizability.

You start by entering the list of words you want to use for your anagram.

For instance, let’s say I’m developing some kid’s show material and have a fun little routine in mind where the birthday boy imagines being knifed to death by one of America’s most prolific serial killers. I have him focus deeply on the scene—ideally to the point of tears. I tell him to picture writing the killer’s name on the floor in the blood pouring from his stomach.

“That’s it. Now you’re dead. It’s my job, as the psychic detective, to step inside your mind and try to pick up on the letters you smeared in dried blood across the kitchen tile.”

A real crowd-pleaser.

So to create this trick, I grab the names of the top serial killers.

  1. Samuel Little

  2. Gary Ridgway

  3. Ted Bundy

  4. John Wayne Gacy

  5. Jane Toppan

  6. Jeffrey Dahmer

  7. H.H. Holmes

  8. William Bonin

  9. Patrick Kearney

  10. Earle Nelson

  11. Ronald Dominique

  12. Larry Eyler

  13. Randy Kraft

  14. Angel Resendiz

  15. Donald Harvey

  16. Joseph DeAngelo

  17. Dean Corll

  18. Juan Corona

  19. Richard Ramirez

  20. Edmund Kemper

And I put that list into the text box on that site.

Now we have a couple of options:

Hide letters that will increase the maximum number of guesses

If you check that box, then it will prioritize making the shortest anagrams (the Transgressive-style of anagram I’ve written about in the past).

If you don’t check that box, and instead check:

Sort letters by total number of matches (instead of alphabetical)

Then you can create an anagram and choose the letters you like to maximize the number of hits.

Either way, when you enter your list, you’ll get a chart like this, which tells you how many options have each letter in it. Don’t get confused, it’s very simple. You click on whichever letter you want to start with and that will take you to the next step in your anagram.

It’s fast, intuitive, and really well-designed. It took me about 15 seconds to generate each of these anagrams.

Shortest (Transgressive-Style) No more than 5 guesses

Most Hits - No more than two misses

If you’re not familiar with this type of anagram chart (I may have invented it while building them in Excel—or maybe it’s just obvious), here’s how it works: You start with the letter in the left-most column. If the spectator says yes, you follow the green path to the next letter. If they say no, you follow the red path instead.

Thanks to Glen for creating it and letting me share it with you.