While walking through the Cleveland Museum of Natural History earlier this week, Reddit user muppaphone noticed something strange – and oddly adorable – among a collection of taxidermied beetles. Hidden among the carefully pinned insect specimens was a tiny Volkswagen Beetle toy. That’s right: a toy car disguised as a bug, sitting pretty in the insect exhibit like it belonged there all along.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History houses an impressive and unique collection dedicated to beetles. At first glance, the display looks like any other scientific exhibit – rows of beetles arranged by size, color, and species. But look a little closer and you’ll spot a surprise: a ladybug-sized VW Bug tucked neatly in place, pinned just like the real insects.
Most believe this is the work of a good-humored entomologist or curator – a subtle visual pun inserted for observant visitors to discover. Reddit commenters were quick to chime in, suggesting museums often include Easter eggs like these to spark joy and curiosity. One summed it up best with a nod to The Beatles: “Beep beep’m beep beep yeah!”
Turns out, the tiny VW Beetle isn’t a recent addition. According to muppaphone, the toy car has been part of the exhibit since their high school days – sometime in the late ’90s or early 2000s. Glenda Bogar, the museum’s director of communications, confirmed the story. “It serves as a fun way to engage our visitors,” she told The Huffington Post. “Visitors are always excited when they uncover these humorous and unexpected objects.” Bogar also revealed that this isn’t the museum’s only hidden gem – there are several others sprinkled throughout the building, waiting to be found.
The quirky discovery sparked a wave of similar stories from other museum-goers. One Redditor mentioned the Science Museum of Boston hides a plastic lawn flamingo in its birds of prey exhibit. Another joked that such humor is par for the course in entomology. “In my experience,” one commenter wrote, “the plant biologists tend to be boring as hell, the vertebrate biologists are a hoot, and the entomologists are fucking hilarious.”
Apparently, when you spend your days studying bugs, you develop a pretty sharp sense of humor. Or, as one user put it: “Funny is just the way entomologists bee.”
So next time you visit a natural history museum, look a little closer. You might just spot a tiny punchline hiding in plain sight – like a miniature VW Bug among a swarm of beetles.
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