Back

Solution to A Mad Cocktail Party

Authors: Usman Akeju and Anand Sarwate
Voice Acting: Usman Akeju, Aaron Bader, Seth Bisen-Hersh, Brandy Buckingham, Dan Katz, Capen Low, Erin Rhode, Laura Royden, Anand Sarwate, and Hanna Starobinets

The puzzle contains 5 audio files, each tracking the path of one of 5 characters who are at the Mad Hatter's Cocktail Party: the April Hare, the Titmouse, the Butterfly, the Real Turtle, and Tweedledoo. The characters move between different rooms, sometimes meeting each other, and sometimes soliloquizing on their own. The script was not made available to the hunters, but may make the solution easier to parse.

Solvers are supposed to realize the following facts:

  1. Each of the audio files tracks a single character.
  2. There are 9 distinct locations at the party. This is clued by descriptive dialogue plus the presence (or absence) of certain other characters (e.g. a cheese-obsessed friend of the host at the Buffet).
  3. The locations are laid out in a 3x3 grid as a phone keypad. This is clued by the characters referring to how different locations relate to each other.
  4. The characters talk a lot about phones -- this clues the extraction mechanism, namely phone spell.

In addition to the 5 characters for each track, there are a few Non-Puzzle Characters (NPCs):

  • Bob the Gecko
  • The Cheshire Dentist
  • The Caffeinated Cordwainer
  • The Gibbertalk
  • The Bartender
  • The Mad Hatter (who only shouts CHANGE PLACES at the end of each scene)

The locations are as follows (numbers indicate keypad location:
1 - Bar
2 - Bathroom
3 - Buffet
4 - Closet
5 - Living Room
6 - Hallway
7 - Library
8 - Balcony
9 - Foyer

The clues in the script (to deduce the layout) are as follows:

  • Bob the Gecko is with the food (cheese)
  • there is a closet
  • the food is straight ahead of where the Cordwainer is
  • the bar is not next to the food
  • there is an outside location
  • there is a location with columns
  • Tweedledoo is between the Titmouse and food
  • there is a bathroom
  • the bar is next door to the closet
  • the bathroom is between the bar and the food
  • the closet is on the opposite side from where the Cordwainer is
  • there is a center of the party (and it is deserted)
  • you can see the balcony from the center
  • the center is between the bathroom and the balcony
  • the balcony faces south
  • there is a library
  • library is possibly in the other direction from the bar with respect to the closet
  • the bar is the #1 spot
  • the bar is maximally distant from the door
  • the bar is next to the bathroom
  • the hallway is a knight's jump from the library and the bar
  • the Butterfly didn't change locations
  • library is maximally distant from the buffet
  • the balcony is between the library and the door
  • the closet is between the library and the bar

The character movements through the puzzle look like this, with their corresponding phone spells, in order of the audio files in the puzzle, yield:
Track A (TITMOUSE): 92581111 => WALT
Track B (APRIL HARE): 34763971 => DISNEYS
Track C (TWEEDLEDOO): 62311111 => MAD
Track D (BUTTERFLY): 42883711 => HATTER
Track E (REAL TURTLE): 86423111 => VOICE

The answer is ED WYNN, who voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney's 1951 film, Alice in Wonderland.

Acting Credits

The puzzle features the talents of the following voice actors:

  • Laura Royden as the April Hare
  • Dan Katz as the Titmouse
  • Erin Rhode as the Butterfly
  • Brandy Buckingham as the Real Turtle
  • Anand Sarwate as Tweedledoo
  • Seth Bisen-Hersh as Bob the Gecko
  • Hanna Starobinets as the Cheshire Dentist
  • Usman Akeju as the Caffeinated Cordwainer
  • Aaron Bader as the Gibbertalk
  • Capen Low as the Bartender
  • Futurama's Mad Hatter Robot (David Herman) as the Mad Hatter

As a bonus, here is an outtake of Seth reading his line about cheese: