Why Are Volkswagen Beetles Called 'Slug Bugs?'

Not many cars can lay the same claim to fame as the Volkswagen Type 1, more affectionately referred to as a "Bug." 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 "Outer Banks" will recognize "Twinkie" 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 "Volkswagen") 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 "The Love Bug" (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 — a car-spotting game most commonly known as "Slug Bug," 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 "Punch Buggy" and "Beetle Bop," but no matter what you call it, the game is the same.

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 "bored American children" or college kids during the Bug's zenith.

Volkswagen did some research and discovered that the term "slug bug" first appeared in print in a 1964 issue of the "Arizona Republic" where a columnist's daughter recounted she thought VW Bugs (aka "slug bugs") were cute. Meanwhile, an article in Florida from 1978 said "punch buggy" was a name used for the game on the coasts but was called "slug bug" in the Midwest, proving the names have been intertwined and interwoven for years.

In 2010, Volkswagen ran a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign called "Punch Dub" that concocted a fictional story about Charlie "Sluggy" Patterson — the so-called "inventor" of the game — the very first person to see a VW and summarily punch his buddy. The ad claims the game started "over 50 years ago," 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.