Couch Potato Salad Days Are Here

Move over, Wordle.

There’s a new game in town.

Literally.

Couch Potato Salad was created right here in Westport. And with its clever premise, compelling graphics and daily addictive/social/creative buzz, it could be the next thing to break the internet.

Just click on CouchPotatoSaladGame.com. You’ll see an image. The correct answer will describe it using 2 common phrases, linked by a shared middle word.

For example:

It’s “Shrimp Cocktail Party.”

Try this:

Of course, it’s “Smart Cookie Monster.”

The game is the brainchild of Zack Gross. The 2001 Staples High School graduate moved back to Westport last year, with his wife and 2 young children.

He enlisted current Staples senior Joshua Jordan to turn the idea into a web-based reality.

(Full disclosure: I got the 2 together. I coached Zack in soccer back in the day. And Josh developed the very successful “06880” app last summer. Zack calls Josh “the smartest 18-year-old on the planet.” That’s low-balling it.)

In about 2 months, Josh created the website. Zack made the graphics. And last week, they soft-launched Couch Potato Salad (get it?) on the world.

Zack Gross

The game’s genesis dates back more than a decade. Zack and Lauren McCabe — also a Westport resident — hashed out the idea on a couples’ trip. They played occasionally, using words only, over the years.

But Zack always thought the game would work well as a visual puzzle.

“The best phrase couplets are amusing because they create a silly image in your mind,” the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law graduate says.

“Crab Walk of Shame” works because you imagine a hungover crab stumbling home on the beach. But he had no way of generating the hundreds of images he needed for the game.

Then came Artificial Intelligence.

Now — with the right prompt — he can create endless images. AI generates “The Wicked Witch of the West Wing” or “Drunk with Power Rangers” at a tiny fraction of the time — and cost — it would take an illustrator.

“The images are amazing,” Zack says. “Embarrassingly, I have several hanging in my house masquerading as ‘art.'”

Try this beauty:

Of course, it’s “Elephant in the Room for Improvement.”

Even with AI, of course, capturing the right image is not easy.

“You can’t just type ‘Bachelor Pad Thai’ and get a workable puzzle,” he notes.

He first figures out the necessary visual elements and style, then explains it to the program.

From there, it’s a lot of trial and error.

For the “Couch Potato Salad” image — on the website’s home page — Zack generated over 100 options. A professional illustrator revised it further.

What’s especially cool, Zack says, is that the game was created, tested and developed entirely by Westporters.

Josh Jordan

After developing it with McCabe, he sent it to high school classmates Will Downey, Mike Carey, Jordan Schur, Everett Boyle and Jim Wolf (some of whom, like Zack, have returned here to live).

Josh — the Staples senior — took care of all the back end tech work. As with the “06880” app, he worked quickly, efficiently, creatively and very professionally.

Now Zack and Josh — 23 years younger, and a soon-to-be fellow Staples grad — have shared Couch Potato Salad with the rest of the world.

What a great Brain Food Chain!

(Where else but “06880” can you find a story like this? When you finish downloading Couch Potato Salad, please consider a contribution to your hyper-local blog. Click here — and thank you!)