You’ve probably heard the Volkswagen Beetle being called a bug, but why are they sometimes called slug bugs, and how do you play the game associated with them?<\/b>
\nNot many cars can lay the same claim to fame as the Volkswagen Type 1, more affectionately referred to as a \u00ab\u00a0Bug.\u00a0\u00bb Technically, the Type 1 didn’t officially become the Beetle until 1968. If your family was lucky enough to own a Type 1 or a Type 2, otherwise known as a Microbus, you were living the whole Volkswagen life. Fans of the popular hit television show \u00ab\u00a0Outer Banks\u00a0\u00bb will recognize \u00ab\u00a0Twinkie\u00a0\u00bb the Microbus as the ride of choice for the beloved Pogues.
People across America really fell in love with the German-made people’s car (the literal translation of \u00ab\u00a0Volkswagen\u00a0\u00bb) between 1968 and 1973, when over a million Type 1’s were sold yearly. Part of that love affair (and corresponding sales spike) can be directly attributed to Walt Disney’s hit comedy \u00ab\u00a0The Love Bug\u00a0\u00bb (released in 1969) about an anthropomorphic VW Bug named Herbie.
Learning how to drive a Bug’s manual stick shift (an option that’s becoming extinct) was a rite of passage for many growing up in the era, when the little cars skittered across the highways in droves. During this heyday, a game arose that became a ritual for those taking to the wide open roads before there were cell phones, iPads, and other electronic gizmos to keep passengers entertained \u2014 a car-spotting game most commonly known as \u00ab\u00a0Slug Bug\u00a0\u00bb, where the first person who saw a VW Bug out in the wild got to punch, or slug, someone in the arm. It’s also called \u00ab\u00a0Punch Buggy\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Beetle Bop\u00a0\u00bb, but no matter what you call it, the game is the same.Slug, punch, or bop . it’s all about the Bug
Whatever the name, the game is still basically the same, although there are a myriad of regional variations like scoring points, calling out the color, convertibles being worth two slugs, not allowing Super Beetles (because it’s different from a standard Beetle), etc. No one knows when the game first appeared, but it’s apparent from the name (no matter which one you grew up with) that it’s directly tied to the iconic car. Some sources claim it was invented by \u00ab\u00a0bored American children\u00a0\u00bb or college kids during the Bug’s zenith.
Volkswagen did some research and discovered that the term \u00ab\u00a0slug bug\u00a0\u00bb first appeared in print in a 1964 issue of the \u00ab\u00a0Arizona Republic\u00a0\u00bb where a columnist’s daughter recounted she thought VW Bugs (aka \u00ab\u00a0slug bugs\u00a0\u00bb) were cute. Meanwhile, an article in Florida from 1978 said \u00ab\u00a0punch buggy\u00a0\u00bb was a name used for the game on the coasts but was called \u00ab\u00a0slug bug\u00a0\u00bb in the Midwest, proving the names have been intertwined and interwoven for years.
In 2010, Volkswagen ran a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign called \u00ab\u00a0Punch Dub\u00a0\u00bb that concocted a fictional story about Charlie \u00ab\u00a0Sluggy\u00a0\u00bb Patterson \u2014 the so-called \u00ab\u00a0inventor\u00a0\u00bb of the game \u2014 the very first person to see a VW and summarily punch his buddy. The ad claims the game started \u00ab\u00a0over 50 years ago\u00a0\u00bb, which would have put it back to before 1959 if true. No matter when it began, the game, the Bug, and the Microbus are all destined to run forever.<\/p>\n