# "Punch Buggy" or "Slug Bug"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701 "2010-06-18T19:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/21 "2010-06-18T23:53:31Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > In my family, we always played “Bebop”. > > It was a few decades before I considered this might be a reference to the sound the horn might make (I’ve never had someone in a Bug honk at me, I’ll have to find one to try that…) > > Now I got a funny visual of a Volkswagen Beetle wearing a big cowboy hat. A VW horn goes meep meep. ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jw2QBZ-jQP4/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/jw2QBZ-jQP4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/22 "2010-06-19T00:17:40Z")
Age 48 here, never heard of this game. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/23 "2010-06-19T00:34:20Z")
I dunno what game you folks are talking about. We didn’t need a reason to have a fistfight in the backseat. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/24 "2010-06-19T00:57:33Z")
As I stated in the other Thread . . . “Punchbuggy” _scans better_. Slug Bug is a spondee. Spondees suck. Spondees are for babies. Punchbuggy is a dactyl. Dactyls are elegant and beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/25 "2010-06-19T02:03:15Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > As I stated in the other Thread . . . Actually, here’s [a direct link](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12587173&postcount=58) for the benefit of anyone who missed it. Damn eloquent explanation if there ever was one. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/26 "2010-06-19T02:11:29Z")
We would say “Slug bug [color]!” We also played yellow car, which also counted for punches. A yellow slug bug was two punches, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![moi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@moi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/27 "2010-06-19T02:16:38Z")
Man, first I thought all I had to worry about was those VW commercials screwing with a good thing, now you’re telling me people out there call it SLUG BUG? The mind boggles. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/28 "2010-06-19T02:18:08Z")
We would say “slug-a-bug.” ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/29 "2010-06-19T02:31:30Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > Sorry, it’s **Slug Bug** and any other answer is wrong, and I’m sticking my fingers in my ears so I can’t hear you LA LA LA LA LA LA LA… Yep, I’m right there with you. > [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Either one. Some people call it one thing, some call it another, both are right. LA LA LA LA LA . . . ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/30 "2010-06-19T02:36:36Z")
It’s “Slug Bug [color]”. Always and forever… Did anyone play the game where, if you saw a car with a headlight out, you said “Perdiddle” and punched the roof of the car? Or was it just us? ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/31 "2010-06-19T02:49:27Z")
Slug bug, slug bug, slug bug. The kids on my school bus wouldn’t have been wrong about a thing like that. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/32 "2010-06-19T02:53:18Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > Did anyone play the game where, if you saw a car with a headlight out, you said “Perdiddle” and punched the roof of the car? > > Or was it just us? One of my brothers and I still call “Pediddle” when we see a one-eyed car. Our rule was that we had to lick a finger and touch it to the roof liner as we said it. If you didn’t lick your finger first, you were cheating and didn’t “win” even if you said it first. I’ll bet the roofliner of my mother’s car was crawling with germs. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/33 "2010-06-19T02:59:55Z")
Punch bug, no -gy. Color always noted! ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/34 "2010-06-19T03:13:34Z")
I asked the [same question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554828)back in March. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/35 "2010-06-19T05:00:36Z")
I never, ever heard of this until a thread on here. I was shocked to see the commercials– ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/36 "2010-06-19T05:26:58Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > And for the record, the only correct answer is “Punch Buggy”. “Slug Bug” is for people who _need_ things to rhyme. You know – like four-year-olds. In the classic MST3K episode “Manos: The Hands of Fate”, Joel and the bots used “Slug Bug.” Are you calling them childish? Actually, that’s probably fairly accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/37 "2010-06-19T05:58:32Z")
Growing up in Idaho in the '60s we would say Beetle [color] and attack each other with X-acto knives. ---
**Author:** ![firstname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@firstname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstname)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/38 "2010-06-19T06:46:41Z")
I’m really shocked that slug bug is winning, i’d never heard that term untill i read the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/39 "2010-06-19T06:49:02Z")
Umm, only 4-8yo play that game, and even they stopped decades ago. Other than some stupid fucking new ads, that is. Do you work for VW or are you just easily influenced by advertising? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/40 "2010-06-19T07:08:31Z")
We used both interchangeably. My cousin called it “punch buggy,” but I heard it on television called “slug bug.” I still think “punch buggy” sounds better, but I think “slug bug” is more accurate, as I’ve never heard a VW Beetle called a buggy. In fact, I thought it was using the old terminology for cars as those particular cars just looked old. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701.md?page=3)