# "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:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**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, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/41 "2010-06-19T07:41:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 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? You’re so cool. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/42 "2010-06-19T07:50:44Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > We always called it “slug bug” where I grew up. It was just “slug bug”. No color, nothing else except the accompanying slug in the arm. Damn right! ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/43 "2010-06-19T13:27:08Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > A VW horn goes meep meep. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw2QBZ-jQP4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw2QBZ-jQP4) That’s _adorable_! I want one now! 😃 ---
**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, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/44 "2010-06-19T13:33:57Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > 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. Oh my! How I blush! ---
**Author:** ![foxymoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/45 "2010-06-19T14:00:39Z")
I grew up with “Slug Bug,” but when my son learned the game from his cousins in another state he learned it “Punch Buggy.” So that’s how we play it now. We also play Bruiser Cruiser (PT Cruiser), and Doppelganger, which we made up. Doppelganger is when you see a car that looks like the one you’re in. In addition to playing Punch Buggy and Bruiser Cruiser, my neice and nephew also play “Beaver,” which is any yellow car (taxis excluded, I think). ---
**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, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/46 "2010-06-19T14:06:11Z")
Oh! We also used to play “Beaver Car” which was spotting any car with that wooden paneling stuff along the sides. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/47 "2010-06-19T15:04:49Z")
When I was a young 'un (early 70s, Georgia) we played a game called **Spud**. There was no punching. It was a points game. You yelled “Spud!” upon seeing a beetle for one point. A “Spud Magoo!” (a _red_ Beetle) was worth 5 points. False calls deducted points. At that time, there were so many of them on the road that if there had been punching involved someone would have wound up in the hospital. ---
**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, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/48 "2010-06-19T16:07:18Z")
We didn’t play this game, but I played a similar game as a child when I was growing up in Montreal in the mid 70s. I was about ten or eleven years old at the time. It was called “duck for the taxi”. We’d be looking out of our second-floor apartment window, and if we saw a taxi go by on the street below, we’d have to duck. Last person down was the loser of that round. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/49 "2010-06-19T16:12:44Z")
Slug bug? Really? What are you sick lunatics talking about?! Punch Buggy forever!! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/50 "2010-06-19T16:31:57Z")
We played Beaver Cleaver. “Beaver” was for a Bug and “Beaver Cleaver” was for a red Bug. The game lasted approximately ten years. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/51 "2010-06-19T16:49:32Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > 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. While I agree with you (especially on Slug Bug being infantile and sucky and Punch Buggy being the One True Answer), I’m curious what your feeling is on Homer’s constant substitution of spondees for dactyls in _Iliad_. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/52 "2010-06-19T19:13:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 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? Stop with the threadshitting, **DrDeth**. You’ve been here plenty long enough to know better. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/53 "2010-06-19T19:36:34Z")
There was no poll option for “I’ve heard of this before, but we didn’t do it when I was growing up.” Therefore, I did not vote in the poll. ---
**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, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/54 "2010-06-19T19:42:34Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > There was no poll option for “I’ve heard of this before, but we didn’t do it when I was growing up.” The poll isn’t “what did you play”, it’s “what is the correct name of this game”. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/55 "2010-06-20T02:41:22Z")
I called it Slug Bug, but my kids call it Yellow Bank. Whenever they see a yellow car, they bank it for future punches or something. I still perfer the straight forward punching. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/56 "2010-06-20T03:42:48Z")
My husbands family apparently thought Punch Buggy wasn’t violent enough. On road trips as kids they played Punch Buggy, Slap Taxi, Kick Bus and Elbow Canoe. We did not teach our children this, unfortunately their aunt and uncle did. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/57 "2010-06-21T19:39:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 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? > [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Stop with the threadshitting, **DrDeth**. You’ve been here plenty long enough to know better. It’s also wrong. [Stitch is from 2002.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvB1LXWHlwM) ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701/58 "2010-06-21T22:09:26Z")
Clearly those on the “punch buggy” side of the fence just don’t understand all the rules of the game. For one thing, it’s important to add “no returns” to the end or you will get smacked in return for the same car. Thus, slug bug is much better than the weak “punch buggy” as it has one less syllable and rolls off the tongue faster so you can get to the very important “no returns” part. To be perfectly clear, if you see a blue beetle you would say, “slug bug blue no returns!” while slugging whoever is nearest to you. This is the definitive way to play the game. “Punch buggy” is just crazy talk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punch-buggy-or-slug-bug/543701.md?page=2)