r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Subconcious-Consumer • 14d ago
Was there really a game in the 90’s where you punch someone when you spot a Volkswagen Bug? Answered
I was a young kid growing up through the 90’s - my mom used to punch the shit out of my arm and exclaim “SLUGBUG!” every time she saw a VW Bug on the road.
Did my mom invent some sort of latent child abuse or did other 80s/90s babies get punched while just fucking listening to meatloaf in the car?
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u/slash178 14d ago
Yes this is a thing
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u/boiledpeen 14d ago edited 13d ago
Yea, it was a thing in the 2000s too. I remember growing up with this game as a kid.
edit: we called it punchbuggy, and it's funny to see oldheads saying new bugs don't count toward the game lol. yes they do.
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u/captainhamption 14d ago
It was a thing in the 70s when I was a kid.
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u/fish_whisperer 14d ago
And the 80’s. I’m willing to bet it’s still a thing. We called it “slug bug.”
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u/Gibson125T 14d ago edited 13d ago
My 11 year old confirms its still around.
Never heard slug bug though. Wonder if what you say is regional. It was always "punch buggy", usually followed by "no punch back".
EDIT: someone mentioned they say the color first, then punch buggy. I had forgotten about that. but thats 100% what we said. for geographical reference I am in Florida. was a kid in the 90's.
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u/readyreadyvt 14d ago edited 13d ago
Punch buggy [colour], no returns. — eastern Canada, ‘80s
ETA the u in colour and the decade
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u/23skidoobbq 14d ago •
It was punch buggy for us. And “Padiddle” if you saw a car with one headlight, also punched in the arm for that too.
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u/moronthat 14d ago
Yes! Wow Padiddle was hiding way in the back of my memory until you just pulled it forward :)
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u/sturdypolack 14d ago
Yes! Padiddle and Punch Buggy
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u/VisualProfessional12 13d ago
For me, padidle was slap the top of the car ceiling with the back of your hand when you saw a car with one headlight 😆
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u/Mryessicahaircut 13d ago
🤭I still catch myself sometimes doing
a little tap on the roof of my car and quietly saying "padiddle" when I'm driving alone at night and see a car with one headlight. Then I roll my eyes at what a dork I am.72
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u/Own-Worry4388 14d ago
When we would see a car with one headlight, we'd say, "popeye" then kiss our hand and touch the ceiling of the car.
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u/sandysanBAR 14d ago
What in the blue blazes? No punching? What is this? Amateur hour?
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u/prozack91 14d ago
We did this but whoever was last got punched by everyone.
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u/Research_Sea 14d ago
We did the hand kiss to the roof when we went through a yellow light, thanking it for not turning red yet.
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u/fish_whisperer 14d ago
Oh, yeah, we had “padiddle” too!
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u/ParameciaAntic 14d ago
We did too. I rarely see them any more, though. Better quality lights and maintenance these days, I guess.
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u/delmarshaef 14d ago
I saw one in the parking lot at work and called to the driver “hey, you know you’re a padiddle?” and I’m pretty sure he thought I was cursing him or something. He had no idea what I was talking about.
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u/e36freak92 14d ago
And cars that tell you when a bulb is out. It's amazing how many people can't tell
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u/MistyShadowWolf 14d ago
My little sister and I would literally just call it punch buggy. Also, was it true that crossing your fingers meant you were immune to any punches back or was that young me making certain I couldn't get hit back after punching her arm?
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u/Jaspers47 14d ago
Maybe it goes back further. Maybe kids in the 19th century yelled "Slug Bug" anytime an insect landed in the carriage.
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u/Traditional_Yak_3466 14d ago
Punch buggy
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u/pm_me_ur_th0ng_gurl 14d ago
No punch backs
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u/WhoElseButQuagmire11 13d ago
Not sure if it's an Aussie but I was taught(via fire) that it's "punch buggy no returns" I still sometimes to it to my partner out of sheer habit(I hit her very gently)
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u/Shayedow 14d ago
When I was a kid ( born in '79 ) You had to yell " COLOR ( so yellow ) PUNCH BUGGY TAKES NO BACKS! " and punch as hard as you could on the shoulder. If you didn't yell take no backs, the person you punched could yell the same thing but with take no backs and punch you back.
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u/Smil3yAngel 14d ago
Yep! Born in 79 as well and this was the way. The only difference was we said "no take backs" instead of "takes no backs."
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u/Mountain-Permit-6193 14d ago
In the movie “Lilo and Stitch,” Stitch throws a blue VW bug and says “blue punch buggy”
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u/DreamedJewel58 14d ago
There’s also a Simpsons gag where a school bus goes by a Volkswagen dealership and every kid gets off the bus with a sore arm
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u/echoCashMeOusside 13d ago
There was a route my family frequently passed that went by a junkyard that always had a hoard of Slug Bugs. So my older sister would just start wailing on me "SLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUGSLUGBUG!"
And when I got a little older and had the foresight to be ready to punch, the back seat just turned into a full-on brawl to the point our folks said the junkyard was off limits and we were only allowed to do slug bugs for cars on the street.
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u/cinder-hella 14d ago
Yes! He says "blue punch buggy, no punch backs!" That if nothing else should show that it was very much a thing.
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u/DigiTrailz 14d ago
Suprised, I had to scroll this far down. It shows it wasn't just a thing, but common enough to be used as a movie one liner.
To be fair, if I hit someone with a VW Bug, I'd probably use it, too.
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u/geoffreygoodman 14d ago
Volkswagen ran a commercial in 2010 featuring the game. With hilarious cameo from Stevie Wonder.
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u/suzazzz 13d ago
Big smiles from watching that. But they punched on all VW’s. We only did beetles. OMG I’m remembering all the people I knew who had buses and things!
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u/justaguyintownnl 14d ago
Punch buggy Was in 1970’s & 1980’s When you saw a VW bug you hit the other player in the upper arm
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u/PerpetuallyLurking 14d ago
“Other player”
ie: nearest sibling, hopefully not paying attention for best effect.
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u/CD84 14d ago
Even when they didn't know they were playing
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u/barlog123 14d ago
You're always playing. It's not optional
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u/Buzz_Buzz_Buzz_ 14d ago
Thanks, I just lost the other game with the same rule. Dammit.
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u/VanMan32 14d ago edited 14d ago
We called it punch buggy. You’d say “punch buggy no punch backs”, so they couldn’t hit you for seeing the same Volkswagen bug.
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u/Wajina_Sloth 14d ago
My brother and I did it so much that my mom changed the game to “love bug”.
So instead of hitting she would rub your arm and say “luuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuUuuuvvvvvv bug”
We quickly stopped playing
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u/jedikelb 14d ago
Your mom sounds awesome and smart.
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u/chillyhellion 13d ago
Moms can be clever. We used to have contests to see who can find the food item in the pantry with the oldest expiry date. It wasn't until I explained this to my wife decades later that I realized Mom was tricking us into cleaning the pantry.
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u/Kelihow2 14d ago
My mom got tired of us hitting each other as well and her version of "love bug" was to say something nice about the person who called it.
We also did two others: a Cadillac Slap and a Sting 'Stang (in which we pinched each other for every Mustang we saw)
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u/Just_Standard_4763 13d ago
My friend would hit me with PT Cruiser Bruiser and slap a hoe Tahoe which I’m pretty sure she made up.
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u/King-Snorky 14d ago edited 14d ago
We saw a Herbie-themed Beetle parked next to a more modern red one just today, and my wife socked me in the arm before I could react.
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u/wissahickon_schist 14d ago
We had to say the color: “punch buggy blue no punchbacks!!”
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u/missheardjingle 14d ago
we didnt say no punchbacks because the color claimed it. so 'punch buggy blue' meant that the blue one was mine.
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u/KonradWayne 13d ago
Me and my friends didn't say no punchbacks, because we were gentlemen who understood the etiquette of the game.
First person to see it and call it out gets to punch someone in the arm. We live in a society.
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u/thecoocooman 14d ago
This is so interesting. We had to say the color too, but the color always came first. “Blue punch buggy no punch backs”
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u/GyrKestrel 14d ago
It was definitely colloquial. I thought it was just Slugbug until I heard it called punch buggy on Simpsons. I always found things like this interesting, like soda vs pop.
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u/Wrybrarian 14d ago
My husband and I still do it and also call it "punch buggy." Along with "Whack-abego"(for RVs), and "Touchdown" (for yellow cars.) The RV one I think we made up but a 2nd grade student of mine taught me Touchdown.
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u/Keenan95 14d ago
You forgot pt pinch for pt cruisers
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u/Longjumping-Bat3639 14d ago
We called em cruiser bruisers!
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u/19yzrmn 14d ago
We yell PT Bruiser!! And always had SlugBug, no slugs back. I was a 70’s and 80’s kid.
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u/csmatczak 14d ago
My wife and I had a similar game from the late 00's. We both loved FJ Cruisers and would call them out when spotted and tally them up.
The winner was not abused 😉
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u/bighootay 14d ago
"Whack-abego"(for RVs), and "Touchdown" (for yellow cars.)
Well I'm gonna drive somewhere with someone just so I can try this new shit out!
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14d ago
Sounds like the 90s version of when life gives you lemons, punch someone in the arm.
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u/Subconcious-Consumer 14d ago
I have so many other questions now… How the fuck did this get invented? and why have we not adopted another model of car to punch our loved ones over?
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u/Cute_Bandicoot2042 14d ago
How the fuck did this get invented?
Comes from a time before mobile phones or handheld video games. Kids had to entertain themselves on long roadtrips and the Beetle was a particularly distinctive car at the time.
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u/dhaunsperger 14d ago
My kids do it with Teslas now. Pretty sure they picked it up at school rather than reinventing the punch buggy game themselves.
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u/AcaciaKait 14d ago
Aw this makes me feel so old but also so happy to know the proud tradition has been continued
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u/zuriel2089 14d ago
My dad used to have a version where there were a few different cars they'd do different things for, punch on the arm for a big, slap up the back of the head for a Gremlin, something else for a Pacer... I don't remember what. They had a system of "blocks" you could put up to protect yourself. It got complicated.
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u/LovesHyperbole 14d ago
I had "PT Cruiser Bruiser" on top of slugbug after Cruisers came out. Weekend trips to the city could be pretty violent since everybody thought Cruisers were the newest cool car.
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u/another-new 14d ago
I remember seeing a screenshot of a tweet a long time ago from a “pimp tight cruiser” owner. It went something like “Fellow owners of PT Cruisers: What unfortunate set of circumstances landed you behind the wheel of a PT Cruiser?”
They were awful cars. From appearance to mechanical and electrical problems. I never understood what people liked about them. The only car made in the last 20 years that had worse design was the early 2000’s Dodge Stratus. The battery was inside the fucking fender well. You had to take off the tire, and plastic mud guard to change, charge, or jump off your battery.
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u/OrganizationPublic91 14d ago
Now kids punch each other if they see a license plate from a different state
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u/RosenButtons 14d ago
Mercy Medical Group is a hospital conglomerate in my region. There's an urgent care on every block. The kids shout "MERCY" and punch each other in the arm every time somebody spots the logo.
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u/osunightfall 14d ago
The road was boring as shit before smartphones and gameboy.
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u/yamatuner 14d ago
It’s just a hard jab to the arm for most. Not straight up UFC to the face or anything.
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u/Subconcious-Consumer 14d ago edited 14d ago
My mom had a punching technique she called “Frogging”.
No clue if that’s a thing, but to her it meant punching with a single knuckle outside of a fist.
She had other taglines she would use before punching like this as well, like saying she was “feeling froggy”.
Love that woman to death.
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u/LizzieBell07 14d ago
Frigging is also a thing. Your mom didn't make it up. But I love that you think she's made up all of these things! So cute. (I'm a mom who was a kid in the 90s)
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u/A1_Thick_and_Hearty 14d ago
My mom did this when I was around 8. It's been 30 years and I still remember getting hit in the forehead! Frogging was a thing. Also, besides punch bug, if any car had a headlight out, that was a punch. It was called pididdle (yeah, I've never written that word out). And if it was night time and both headlights were off, it was a double pididdle with 2x punches.
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u/Legdrop_soup 14d ago
We used to have to tap the dash board twice when we saw a padiddle (I've never written that word out either. Weird.) We got good at jumping from the backseat and being able to beat the person in the front. The last one to hit the dashboard got punched in the arm by everyone else
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u/speedy_delivery 14d ago
For my friends, punch bug involves hitting the other player. With pediddle it was the first person to punch the ceiling. Greater Pittsburgh area.
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u/RogerSaysHi 14d ago
Yep, that's frogging. My sisters and I used to do it to each other all the time.
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u/King-Snorky 14d ago
From some random site:
The VW Beetle arrived in steel in 1938 but it was born in 1934, when Adolf Hitler ‘asked’ Ferdinand Porsche to develop the ultimate ‘people’s car’ – literally a Volkswagen in German. One widely held rumour is that because the car was the chosen vehicle for members of the National Socialist Party, as a point of pride to show their loyalty, people turned spotting one in the street into something of a joke – a piece of dark humour for dark times. The other version of the game’s origin story comes from America, but has similar links to Nazi Germany. The story goes that Americans would react to seeing an ostensibly Nazi vehicle cruising the streets by punching their dearest friend – a weird response, it must be said. Most likely of all theories, though, is that the game was born from the vehicle’s unique appearance. The Beetle was, and still is, a one-of-a-kind piece of car design.
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u/Somethingpretty007 14d ago
My family does "yellow banana slap" when we see a yellow car/truck (buses and construction vehicles don't count).
The slap consists of doing a backhand then fronthand slap on someone's arm.
(Ontario Canada fyi)
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u/bubblebumblejumble 14d ago
Listen, punch who you want, I’ll give you a line
Hummer Humdinger
Honda Hoopsydaisy
Toyota Twister
Hyundai Haiya
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u/catlady9851 14d ago
I suspect it was an excuse for older siblings to punch younger siblings without reprisal. Similar to "who can hit the softest."
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u/doodynutz
14d ago
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I can’t believe this is a serious question. I feel old af.
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u/Rollotommasi5 14d ago
Seriously. Like people don’t still do that….? :(
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u/Pogo138 14d ago
Grew up in the 80s and I'm doing it with my two kids. Not as many bugs on the road anymore 😕
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u/BrotherChe 14d ago
I hear it's due to light and environmental pollution near cities, and collapsing ecosystems around the world.
Also, the Germans stopped making them.
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u/KnittedBanana 14d ago
My teenage son's friend group does a similar game but it's based on yellow vehicles, not bugs. There is punching, and you have to yell out what you saw (yellow car, yellow truck, yellow van). There are extensive rules about what counts and what doesn't. School busses and semis never count, moving vans with corporate branding don't count (Ryder), but a moving van devoid of branding would count. A motorcycle counts only if it is predominantly yellow, pin striping or detailing isn't enough. Etc etc etc.
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u/ocular__patdown 14d ago edited 14d ago
Probably died out because there are only like 10 Volkswagen beetles left on the road.
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u/MonkeyTigerCrazy 14d ago
Don’t worry I’m 17 and my friends and I used to do this all the time
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u/RollingGoron 14d ago
I play this with my two young kids, so I’m keeping the game alive and passing it down to the next generation.
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u/scobos 14d ago
I can't believe OP equated it to child abuse.
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u/JRDoubleU_ 14d ago
OP forgot to mention. The Mom would take a surprise drive to the Volkswagen dealership whenever OP fell asleep in the car.
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u/GreenMonster34 14d ago
My two girls punch each other over yellow cars. One kept winning so they expanded to red and green cars too. (They've also forgot to punch lately, they're too excited at winning to remember to hurt their sister which is nice)
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u/gladgubbegbg 13d ago
We do that in Sweden too 😂 GUL BIL 👊
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u/dinmorsklasselaerer 13d ago
Denmark too. It has been a thing for as long as I remeber.
Gul bil!
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u/tobiasvl 13d ago
Norway too, perhaps unsurprisingly
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u/VotFijoel 14d ago
Same! My kids yell "banana car" and punch each other (or me). This is in Australia btw.
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u/BBGettyMcclanahan 14d ago
I remember being a kid that if you saw a yellow beetle you got like 5 punches lol
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u/Cute_Bandicoot2042 14d ago
Yep, 100%. We called it Slug Bug but some people called it Punchbuggy
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u/moondog8 14d ago
My dad owned a VW repair shop. I remember whenever we’d pull up there would be 10-20 of those bugs and my brother would wreck my shit
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u/You_Stole_My_Hot_Dog 14d ago
This is still a thing. We did it my whole childhood in the early 2000s. I’ve heard that what you say changes from place to place. Most say Punch Bug or Punch Buggie.
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u/oriundiSP 14d ago
In Brazil, we only do it if it's a blue Volkswagen Beetle. We say "FUSCA AZUL!!" (meaning, blue Beetle) and then punch them
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u/pingwing 14d ago
I grew up in the US northeast and we always had to call out the color too. "Punchbuggy green!"
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u/rebel-fist questions no answers 14d ago
Same! And if you don’t tag on “no punch back” you’re eligible to be punched back.
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u/emspendilicious 14d ago
In Australia we would say "no returns!" and some people followed the colour rule
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u/thatguyned 14d ago
When I was young it was "PUNCHBUGGY BLUE 123!" and if they could spot the car you saw before you finished your sentence they got to hit you back.
Perth rules are best rules bby
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u/Resoto10 14d ago edited 13d ago
We even had this in Mexico too. Could have been simply because it was a border city but used to pinch and say "1, 2, 3 pulguita..." and then the color of the bug.
EDIT: This post brought me inadvertent happiness by all the comments sharing their experiences.
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u/Llodsliat 14d ago
For me it was just the "bocho amarillo" at first; but then my cousins and I changed it so if the beetle matches your clothes, you're getting punched. Of course, if you noticed the beetle first, you could save yourself.
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u/Subconcious-Consumer 14d ago
Damn, I would have never thought this shit was international.
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u/SpeedwagonOverheaven 14d ago
Here in Brazil we have this too. But only if its a white bug (or "fusca", how we call them here).
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u/ill_monstro_g 14d ago
scrolling down looking for the color bit. grew up North East US, it was always "punch buggy (x)" where x is the color of the car. "punch buggy green, punch buggy red" etc
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u/too105 14d ago
This reminded me of a wholesome story that I haven’t though about in about 30 years. My best friend who was my also neighbor would always get my mom and grandma with a “punch buggy, no punch backs” whenever we would see a bug, as they were pretty common in the 1990s. After a couple years of these childhood antics, mom and grandma concocted a plan to exact their revenge. It started by then taking us to Chuck E. Cheese. First they had us burn off our energy by giving us each a $10 roll of quarters for the games.They then got us doped up on pizza and soda. The second part of their plan was the most sinister. They gave us coloring books and markers for the drive home so we were thoroughly distracted. Then came the moment of revenge… all of a sudden my friend and I were jolted by a flurry of punches and a cacophony of women yelling every color imaginable… the pummeling only lasted a minute but the trauma left us reeling and in shock, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Turns out, they had used the ploy of taking us to Chuck E. Cheese and an innocent excuse to drive out of town… and one the way back stopped in a Volkswagen salvage yard that had hundreds of beetles. They revenge was perfect in its planning and execution. Such a beautiful thing when your mom and grandma conspire to such lengths to exact vengeance. Haven’t thought about that one in a while. Miss ya mom
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u/TheWardenDemonreach 14d ago
Simpsons did it, so that should tell you it was a very real thing
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u/Bunkydoodle28 14d ago
My parents still play this without the hitting. They are both 81. Regret teaching them in the 80's as a tween. Walking down a street in Costa Rica and having your geriatric papa yelling punch buggy is embarassing but I am so glad we all have silly fun together.
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u/Low_Inside_4787 14d ago
Punch Bug!! We also played it at night when a vehicle had a headlight out and we said “Pa-diddle” and still punched.
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u/SgtSloth 14d ago
Our headlight one was "perdiddle" and we hit the dash and the roof with our hands in a pattern.
And the slugbug was slugbug. This was in Wyoming. VERY small town. We kind of had to do our own take I guess cuz we didn't have much contact with the world at large.
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u/Low_Inside_4787 14d ago
I’m in Appalachia so I bet that contributes to the pa- instead of per-
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u/thatoneguy54 14d ago
We did pediddle, but we didn't punch, we played that the last person to touch the roof had to take off an article of clothing.
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u/xBloodBender 14d ago edited 14d ago
We had Slugbug for bugs, and Woodchuck for those station wagons with wood panels. Both involved getting punched in the arm
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u/stockbreak 14d ago
Came to the comments specifically to see if anyone mentioned Woodchuck!
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u/songinheart17 14d ago
Punch buggy (fill in colour), no punch backs. Of course you still punched back.
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u/jsandrin 14d ago
I grew up in Brazil, so there were a lot (and there still are) VW Bugs, so we only punched when seeing a blue one.
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u/Meowskiiii 14d ago
In Northern England we had similar except it was for yellow cars (we'd shout "yellow car"). It was also just between us kids though.
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u/gholmom500 14d ago
Wait- Did people STOP playing it?
I think I slugbugged my teen yesterday!!
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u/Marty5020 14d ago
We still play that with my daughter and wife. And we're from South America. New Beetles and Kombis also apply.
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u/rose77019 14d ago
Yep! Yellow Slug bug, no punch back….. and then you would punch your brother or sister, as hard as you possibly could in the arm….
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u/lapsteelguitar 14d ago
It pre-dated the 90s by about 3 decades. VW resurrected it for one of their ads.
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u/TransSlutUK 14d ago
We had Mini Punch! Where the first person to see the mini punched someone. Made car journeys fun
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u/RepresentativeBusy27 14d ago
Not gonna lie I thought this was about Street Fighter 2
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u/Bob-s_Leviathan 14d ago
“I thought I was supposed to fight E. Honda?”
“You’re not fighting E. Honda. You’re fighting a Honda.”
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u/NaxieBoo 14d ago
My older sibling and I both grew up in the 2000s and did this! Annoyed the shit out of my dad. We did so often and had so many fights over it that when we moved in '08, before we left for the 13+ hour trip, he turned around and told us that punch buggy was OVER and if we did it he would pull the car over and spank our butts right on the side of the freeway. We never did it again.
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u/Crafty-Preference570 14d ago
My brothers and I were playing this game by at least the early 80s, possibly the late 70s.
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u/Spiritual-Pear-1349 14d ago
Punch Buggy for VW Beetle. Kicking for convertables. Punch for Yellow. Punch for PT cruisers were the worst; "P.T. CRUISE-R GOT TO BE A BRUISE-R" with a punch for every syllable.
But a parent doing that to their kid? Thats not alright.
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u/Silver-Difficulty-13 14d ago
In the UK we punch each other if we see a Mini. My grandkids still do it now. It's fine until there are several. Mini punch
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u/reverse_mango 14d ago
Also in the UK. There are so many Minis on the road! My siblings and I have always punched when we see a yellow car, any yellow car. Then we argue when we see a gold car.
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u/wjoe 14d ago
We did it for Minis, Beetles, and yellow cars. If you saw a yellow Beetle, it was two punches, naturally.
I feel like it was a bit harder back in the late 90s/early 2000s when Minis were kind of rare, when the old models had become a bit old fashioned, and the new ones hadn't really gained popularity yet. These days there are so many on the road, that's a lot of punches.
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u/ATHFFrylock 14d ago
Yes! We did it with slug bugs and PT cruisers.
My mom fucking SLUGGED me in the leg when I was 7, with a ring on, thinking her boyfriend was in the backseat where I was sitting. I remember that shit like it was yesterday lol
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14d ago
We called it “punch buggy” and played by no punch back rules plus we added colors. So you couldn’t repeat the same color beetle that day. So you might hear, “punchbuggy red no punch backs!”
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u/Less-Source8049 14d ago
My now wife and I started playing this when we were dating. (It’s more of an arm slap bc duh.) 10 years later and there are established rules like
- Convertible bugs are double slaps
- Driving by the VW dealership is cheating.
- If it’s a neighbors or a family member, it’s open for one initial slap and removed from play.
She usually wins.
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u/FinnegansWakeWTF 14d ago
There was a broken down VW bug in someone's yard on a frequently traveled road my family took. My sister and I eventually had to strike a truce and exempt this particular bug from the punch buggy game because we would punch earlier and earlier and earlier until it was before we even left the house, we would "punch" for this particular bug
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u/refugefirstmate 14d ago
Much older than the 90s. In the 60s in the Rust Belt it was "Punchbug".