There’s never a shortage of weird in the world. All one needs to do is walk the streets to see any number of completely insane acts perpetrated by ordinary people. Twinkies are a perfect example of how outrageous the ordinary has become. It’s a hunk of pseudo-food that we consume as if it has any relationship with normal edibles whatsoever, when in fact it has more in common with your average hiking boot than with a nutritional meal.
Though oddities can be accumulated anywhere, seeing them concentrated all in a single location is a thing of wonder. Though a few stalwart souls will crisscross the country to see huge balls of twine and immense frying pans, it takes a special breed to actually enter a museum filled to the brim with strangeness. They can make you question everything, force you to rethink the world as you know it, and daunt you like only the greatest freakshow in the world can. So, if you want to scratch that curiosity itch that wants to know how insane humankind is, set your sights on the 39 most batty museums people ever thought up.
The Museum of Bad Art
Lots of museums have exceptional art, but here you can revel in the terrible accidents that come about when art goes horribly wrong. There’s actually three of these, because one can’t hold it all.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
A museum dedicated to all things penile, the Phallological museum has more than 215 penises on display for anyone who ever wanted to know more about the world’s ugliest organ.
Sulabh International Museum Of Toilets
A look at toilets from around the world and throughout history, you’ll be shocked by how little you actually knew about this simple device, and saddened when you then have all that knowledge stuffed into your brain.
Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum
Yep, it’s a museum dedicated to instant noodles in Japan, where weird ideas are born. It’s eye-opening when you realize how deep this culinary rabbit hole goes, and how little your college dining experience prepared you for the ramen world.
Cancun Underwater Museum
You’ll need a scuba suit to experience these 400 subaquatic sculptures, all done in the clearest waters in the world at Cancun. Merely look for the Museo Subacuatico de Arte.
Dog Collar Museum
130 historic pieces placed in Leeds Castle, many items look cruel, proving how poorly humans have treated man’s best friend when dressing him up in crazy, uncomfortable metal bands.
British Lawnmower Museum
More than any landscaper ever wanted to know about the world’s grass-cutting tools, there’s more than 200 exhibits here, including a solar lawnmower that’s quite…novel.
Avanos Hair Museum
You too can be a part of this horrifying history by adding your own locks to the collection. Chaetophobics will need to stay far away, since it’s a bunch of gross hair.
Carrot Museum
Belgium might be famous for waffles, and they’re clearly not trying too hard to get known for anything else, as this museum of, you guessed it, orange root vegetables prove.
Kafka Museum
Many writers have museums built to honor their works, but none are quite as strange as the world built to celebrate the paranoid, self-hating, ennui-spewing author still most famous for writing about becoming a bug.
International Cryptozoology Museum
Literally a museum dedicated to animals that no one has ever seen, this has all manner of artifacts surrounding Bigfoot, Nessie, and any other animal that can’t be found.
Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum
Oh, you ain’t seen nothin’ until you’ve seen all the strange ways people throw down with condiments. You’ll be forever changed for the bitter better.
The Museum of Broken Relationships
Ease your woes by seeing those who have had worse failings in the land of coupledom than you. It’s at once heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting to see the ridiculous ways that love ends in our crazy, mixed up world.
Museum of Pez Memorabilia
Flip tops as far as the eye can see, candy fanatics have to see this to believe it. It’s doll-museum level creepy.
Kunsthaus Graz Modern Art Museum
This museum isn’t labeled as strange for the content so much as the building itself, which looks like a giant blob, or an organ of some alien life form come to probe our bits.
Lunchbox Museum
Fans of the thermos and the Dukes of Hazzard are just scraping the surface of the glorious offerings to be seen here.
The Mütter Museum
All the medical oddities you’re glad you don’t have to see anywhere else, physical specimens abound to show you that mutants live among us, and they damn sure don’t look sexy in spandex.
Meguro Parasitological Museum
Lovers of tape worms and anything else that attaches to your body and suck the life out of you will love this house of nightmarish parasites, ready to dig their way into your heart.
Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments
Lovers of pain who enjoy some classics of suffering are invited to feast their eyes and twisted souls here.
Iga-ryū Ninja Museum
Easily found on Google Maps, there’s no stealth to be had in this monument to the secret assassins of the world.
Barbed Wire Museum
It’s in Kansas, which shouldn’t be a surprise.
Chaffee Barbershop Museum
Celebrities get shrines devoted to them, but this one goes for the really deep cuts by being all about a single haircut that Elvis Presley received.
The Sewer Museum
If you thought the toilet museum was fascinating, you ain’t even at the tip of the iceberg yet.
National Mustard Museum
Arguably the only condiment you should ever put on a hotdog that isn’t chili or onions, this little seed has a big tale to tell.
Museum of Enduring Beauty
A quick look back at all of the mangling items people have used to hurt themselves prettier will make you thrilled to be ugly as sin.
Museum of the Weird
It’s in Texas, which should surprise no one, and is full of pulp comic weirdness, as advertised.
The Museum of Bread Culture
Carb cutters might benefit from taking a whirl around the lives of those who have dedicated themselves to bread, and sandwich lovers should seek inspiration here.
International UFO Museum and Research Center
All things about the Roswell crash that the government covered up so effectively.
Condom Museum
You’ll never again complain about a contemporary condom when you see what you could be wearing.
Biomuseo
A museum about biodiversity, which is actually important, we understand why it was built. What confounds is why it looks like children’s blocks.
The Bunny Museum
It’s a bunch of stuffed bunnies. If you need more, man, we can’t help you.
Siriraj Medical Museum
Charmingly known as the Museum of Death, there’s more ugly dead things here than on all AMC shows combined.
International Spy Museum
Or is it?
The Museum of Jurassic Technology
There’s a lot of information here, with some of it being true, and some of it being fabricated. It’s up to you to figure out which is which.
Currywurst Museum
Ah, Germans give good museum. All about sausage, for those who dare to learn how it is made and then never eat it again.
The Mini Bottle Gallery
If you can shove something into a tiny bottle, odds are good you can find it here.
Le Musée des Vampires
A whole building that exhibits everything you could possibly want to know about the myth and legend of vampires. Sorry Twilight fans, no sparkly skin…
The Garbage Museum
It’s almost hard to believe people would throw this crap out. Almost.
The Sex Museum
On a scale from 1 to “All Hot and Bothered” this is most certainly a 1. Informative, anyhow.
