I recently asked Cecil if he knew the origins of the driving game “Slug Bug”. Since I’m the impatient sort, I though I would ask it here as well.
So, onyone here know where people got the idea to whack one another when they saw a VW Beetle? Were they just sick of hippies or is there a deeper meaning?
pax,
zen101
when I was a child, a standard car game to play was “beetle bug”, you spot the car, call out beetle bug first and got a point. beetle busses were worth 10. My sister and I hit each other frequently, but it wasn’t part of ** that ** game. fast forward 30 years. Beetles much less prevalent on the roads, my son hollers out “slug bug” hits me in the arm. WHAT???
and apparently, with certain colors you get hit twice.
It may be that Cecile is busy researching the earlier version to determine when it became violent.
The variation we played was that the person who saw it first could hit the person while saying “Slug Bug”. If the victim couldn’t find it in 5 seconds he got hit 10 times.
There’s a few variations to this game.
For nighttime driving, there is the ever-popular “pediddle”, wherein you are allowed to punch another occupant of the vehicle if you are the first to spot a car with just one functional headlight. When playing in the summertime, be wary of motorcyles that may lead to incorrect slapping.
Another version involves smacking someone when you see a car (generally a station wagon) that had the crappy fake wood paneling on the outside. This variation is known as “Beaver Whack.”
Be aware that you must shout the phrase “Pediddle” or “Beaver Whack” whenever administering a blow to your travelling companions. Failure to do so might result in a misunderstanding. Also, playing more than one version concurrently may lead to excessive bruising.
These games are recommended for two or more players. Please be sure that your driver knows the game is on, lest there be accidents.
When my friends and family played it (early 80’s), there was no punching, the goal was just to build up your point total by spotting the bugs first.
Corvettes were considered to be the anti-bug, and spotting one of those caused your opponents to lose all their points.
–sublight.
I too have suffered many a slug bug game. We also played a version called “Up-struck”…UPS TRUCK. In this game you would yell upstruck and hit your friend. At that time the friend could try his hardest to get the UPS driver to wave back at him. If he were succesful, he could beat the devil out of the first guy.
Ahhhh…those wonderful childhood memories!
A good friend of mine has recently taken to hitting me while driving playing ‘slug bug’. I’m new to this but apparently he and his wife have been playing for years. They had to call a truce when they were in Cancun as apparently everyone there seems to drive a beetle. They would have beaten the crap out of each other if they continued to play on that trip.
My friend’s version is a bit different. You get one slug for a new model beetle. You get two slugs for an ‘old’ model. You get three slugs if the beetle is a convertible or gold and you get ten slugs if the beetle has a Rolls Royce grill on the front. These are additive as well so if you see a gold, convertible beetle with a Rolls Royce grill then you get 16 slugs in.
We started playing Slug Bug in college and my wife and I still play it to this day. Our adjusted rules are 2 hits for red bug, 2 hits for a convertible, and 5 hits for a red convertible. If you see a purple convertible 4x4, you get to punch the other person dead in the face. (Haven’t seen one of these yet.) There’s also a Double Slug Backfire™ for a misidentified Bug.
New model Bugs are off limits since they’re everywhere.
As far as the origin, I first heard of it from a reference on MST3K. Don’t know where they got it from, though.
In the northeast we call it “punch buggy.” We didn’t have special rules for various colors, just the opportunity to punch one’s sibling upon spotting a VW bug.
A friend recently introduced my kids to the game, much to my dismay. So now, in our family, cries of “punch buggy” are followed by a chorus of “thank you, Arlene!”
Hell, I’ve been playing Slug Bug since I could walk. There were never any different hits for different colors or models, though. Just a “Slug Bug!” ::whack:: Also, you have to yell “No Slug backs!” or else they can call Slug Bug on you on the same car.
New Beetles DO NOT COUNT. Don’t listen to anyone else.
–Tim
My kids are ruthless Slug Bug players. The only way I could get back at them was to invent “Cadillac Whack”, “Pickup Punch”, and anything else I could think of to whack them back. Now it’s outlawed in our car.
I haven’t played since the new ones came out, but our rules were pretty much the same. The difference I can find is that we had to call out the colour, as in, “Slug bug red”, or what have you. Loads of fun and bruises. But, again, as kids we would make up games just as an excuse to hit each other. Here’s a link to a similar story that cracked me up.
In Cleveland, it was “punch buggy”, and you had to declare the color, so the other player would know to which bug you referred (on the off-chance that there were two in line of sight at once). “No punch-backs” was not required, but encouraged, else the other player could then punchy you on the same bug. I haven’t played since the new ones came out, but since they’re not Bugs, it’s presumed that they would not count.
Padiddle (for one headlight out) and dipiddle (one taillight) were non-contact, and strictly for bragging rights. There was also “calling” cars, where the first person to spot a particularly cool car would say (for instance), “I call that red Corvette”, with the first caller then being presumed to “own” aforementioned status symbol.
It was “Doodle-bug” with my brothers and I. I think the “doodle” variant is British in origin, since we learned it from a childhood friend who came over from England. There was no hitting involved though. Their version is a much more dignified competition.
We also had to call out the color in case there were two or more in the same parking lot.
One of my brothers recently taught the game to my 5 and 6 year old kids, who went completely nuts when we they saw 9 of them on a big trailer transporting new VWs to a dealership.
I played in Texas with my siblings and we called it Punch Bug. The joys of the game were inventing “invisible bugs” and seeing if you could get away with it. Yeah we all cheated. It got ridiculous when my sisters started shouting “Punch Bug Clear” and hit me or I did the same to hit them. We could only hit on the upper arm or the upper thigh though. Any other place would have started a real fight.
HUGS!
Sqrl
PS. We have been playing for as long as I remember.
Wow…Odd, since in Akron and Canton, it was “Slug Bug.” Being above the snow-belt must freeze your heads. 
Jman
We played slug-bug much like SqrlCub & her siblings did.
At some point, the game mutated into spotting out of state license plates.
The story went that you got one punch if it ended in a letter, and if it ended in a number, you got that many punches. Foreign country plates double the above rules.
Being the older brother, I routinely got pummeled savagely by my brother because I was paying attention to the road while driving, not looking at license plates. After being punched 18 times in a row after he saw a Mexican plate which ended in a 9, I decided to even the score.
I drove by the local U-Haul place at about 5 miles an hour, calling out all the plates on the cars, trailers, trucks, etc… and whaling the crap out of him!
We still laugh about this… it’s one of the many “old age & treachery beats youth & vigor” stories that our family has to tell.
Ahh the invisible punch buggy, the one trick that got the game banned in my famly forever. Of course I decreed that the invisible punch buggy was worth 20 hits, then just bashed my brother. It was fun…
The best part of the invisible punch bug was when we stopped lying about it and just shouted “PUNCH BUG CLEAR!” and hit eachother to our hearts content. My parents didn’t do anything if we did it less than 1 time every few seconds. heheheh
HUGS!
Sqrl