Photo Gallery: What Constitutes A Punch Buggy?

By now, you’ve all seen the ads; various people punching others while calling out the color of the Volkswagen they just saw. Punch! “Black one!” Har. Har. Har. (That’s my sarcastic laugh.) These ads annoy me… a @#$%$ lot.

In case you’re wondering – and I’m sure you’re not – the punch buggy game started somewhere around the 1960s, based on unofficial sources and personal accounts from players, whatever that means.  In its new ad campaign, VW claims that Charlie “Sluggy” Patterson is the guy who made a game out of seeing the VW Beetle and punching his friends. This, however, is humorous fiction created for the ad campaign.

Most of us know that the point of the game is to punch someone in the arm when you see a VW Beetle while calling out “Punch Buggy” or “Slug Bug.” (Punchy buggy sounds way better, just FYI.) But, there is much more to it, at least if you ask Beetlemania, unauthorized keeper of the official Punch Buggy rules.

I’m not sure why Beetlemania is the authority on the game – probably because s/he’s the only one willing to admit to playing the game for 42 years (sad) or perhaps because, before this ad campaign, s/he was the only one still playing it – or even if this person is the authority, but I’ll accept that this person is because, well…why not?

So, according to Beetlemania, a punch buggy can be any of the following: a vintage type 1 or standard Beetle, a vintage Super Beetle, “Beetlesque coach-builts such as a Hebmüller or Karmann Cabriolet,” a non-German, air-cooled Beetle, a modified-but-still-recognizable Beetle, or a New VW Beetle.

The new Beetle is a point of contention for some punch buggy players, as some view it as invalid for game purposes. Seriously. But, as the older models become rare, some players may allow new Beetles to count in the game, to keep it going. In these situations, older Beetles count for two punches.

Beetlemania, however, thinks that the new Beetles count. But, any Beetle modified so that it is not recognizable does not count. That means the Bradley GT, the HumBug (Hummer on Beetle chassis?), the Rometsch, the 181 Kurierwagen (called Thing in the US), and (as Beetlemania puts it) “any other product of Volkswagen beyond those listed as qualifying above — regardless of what some high paid marketing consultant may want you to believe” — doesn’t count. (Photos: What Constitutes A Punch Buggy?)

Why? Well, Beetlemania argues that “one of the allures of playing Punch Buggy has always been that Punch Buggies, by their very nature, are a) readily identifiable as such and b) somewhat uncommon.” If you allow any VW to count, the game would become boring, or there would be so much hitting that the game would become banned by parents (as it’s kids who usually play during car trips).

I know that VW thinks it’s clever for coming up with this campaign, branding it as a whole new game, but come on! I liked the campaign when the cars crashed unexpectedly. At least those showed us something about the car.

Here is one of the ads:

Anyway, here are some other interesting tidbits I found out about the punch buggy game.

A standard game consists of calling out, “Punch buggy” while punching the person on the arm. Some players require the color of the punch buggy to be called out to limit calling out a fake buggy. By calling the color, the player has more proof it exists. And, if the player calls the wrong color, the opposing player may punch the original caller.

Beetlemania says that each called punch buggy is worth a point for the first person who calls it. If you wrongly identify a punch buggy or call out the wrong color, you lose a point. You can be double punched if you’ve already delivered a punch to the opposing player. Or the person can save the punch to take away a legitimate punch buggy punch from you later.

Also, hits should be firm, yet gentle. You shouldn’t hit a person harder than you want to be hit. Also, you can’t call out punch buggy and punch someone for a Beetle you or someone in your family owns*.

* Beetlemania writes, “You don’t really ‘own’ a Punch Buggy. You adopt them and they become members of the family. If you have a Punch Buggy in the family you will understand what I mean.”

Similarly, you can’t punch someone when you pass a VW dealer with several Beetles on the lot. It seems that Beetlemania has covered just about every situation. S/he even writes, “Punch Buggies being moved from a car-carrier parked in the street in front of a Volkswagen dealership to the lot or vice-versa may or may not be fair game.”

Fascinating!