- I bet you thought museums were
classic paintings like the Mona Lisa
and sculptures like Michelangelo's David.
(laughing) No.
When you think of a museum you
probably think of natural history, dinosaur fossils
or at the weirdest Ripley's Believe It or Not!
But the world is a big place
and there's a lot of stuff to show.
A lot of weird, weird stuff.
So because the human race is such a weird bunch,
people from all over the world have created museums to
display things that probably shouldn't be displayed but are.
So let's talk about it.
Here are the 10 weirdest museums in the world.
Number one is the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
Have you ever thought to yourself,
hey I want to visit an institution dedicated
to the presentation of a variety of penises?
I sure have!
Well pack your bags for Reykjavík, Iceland where you'll find
the Icelandic Phallological Museum.
Founded in 1997 by a retired teacher named Sigurður,
the museum grew out of an interest in penises,
that began during his childhood when he was
given a cattle whip made from a bull's penis.
It boasts a collection of more than 215 penises
and penile parts belonging to almost all the land
and sea mammals found in Iceland.
Everything from mice to whales
and in July of 2011 the museum
obtained it's first human penis.
Progress!
Don't forget to sign the guestbook
and look around the phallus store gift shop that sells
shot glasses to help you drink away what you just witnessed.
Just for the record I'd like to point out how difficult
it was to describe this place without every
sentence becoming a double entendre.
It was really hard. (laughs)
Dammit!
Number two is the Museum of Bad Art.
Art is subjective so really any showing could be good or bad
but there is one museum that
displays the worst of the worst.
The Museum of Bad Art is the world's only museum
dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition,
and celebration of bad art in all of it's forms.
It was founded in 1994 after an antique dealer
named Scott Wilson showed a painting that he had
recovered from the trash to some friends
who suggested starting a collection.
The pieces on display range from
the lesser work of talented artists,
to the work of people that are puzzled
of even how just to use a brush at all.
Since it's founding it has grown exponentially with
two larger venues to show off all of the pieces of artwork
because well there's a lot of crappy artists out there.
They are always open to people submitting their
own artwork to be added to the growing collection.
One day my hope is that I'll get a call that my son
or daughter's painting of a turkey
has made it into the museum.
That'll be a proud moment.
Number three is the Museum of Broken Relationships.
When you're down in the dumps
after your special someone left you
and you're clinging onto that one
shoe that they left behind,
instead of sleeping with it you can add
it to the Museum of Broken Relationships.
The museum was founded by two artists named
Olinka and Dražen in Zagreb, Croatia.
After their four year relationship came to an end in 2003,
the two joked about setting up a museum to
house their leftover personal items
and three years later actually did it.
They offer the opportunity for scorned lovers
to overcome the emotional burden of a break up
by sending whatever personal belongings
they want to the collection.
They have been constantly adding new pieces from
the public ever since it was founded.
Now some of the artifacts are obvious additions.
Such as rings, clothing and holiday gifts,
but some are much stranger
and offer a window into the
minds of more adventurous couples.
Such as fuzzy pink hand cuffs
or even a wooden watermelon.
Yeah, that's a real thing.
While this museum is cool most people
already have their own Museum of Broken Relationships.
It's called a Facebook timeline.
Number four is the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum.
Aside from fueling the nightmares of many,
ventriloquist dummies are the dolls
that are used in comedy shows and horror movies,
so they naturally need to make a museum.
Found in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky is the only museum
of it's kind in the world with a collection of more
than 700 ventriloquist dummies.
They all just sit there with their glassy eyes
ready to pierce your very soul with their lifeless stare.
Sounds like fun.
The Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum was founded by
William Shakespeare Berger who
collected the figures as a hobby.
The collection began in his home where he allowed visitors
and other ventriloquists to stop by
and take a look.
Berger amassed a huge collection from the 1930's
until his death in 1973 when the museum was opened.
Included here are figures that look like Presidents
Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan
and displays dedicated to specific famous
ventriloquists like Jeff Dunham.
Okay while I joke but there's nothing weird
or wrong about owning a ventriloquist dummy.
Especially one made in your own image.
This is Matt Junior, say hello.
(creepy music)
Number five is the Mutter Museum.
Located in Philadelphia the Mutter Museum
is a medical museum that was opened in 1963
by Thomas Dent Mütter, MD who donated his
collection of medical specimens
and equipment with the original intention
of facilitating research and education.
Today the collection has continued to grow into a
diverse collection of medical abnormalities
displayed in marble and oak halls.
The items here include the tallest skeleton
currently on display in North America,
at 2.25 meters,
a display of 2,000 objects removed from people's throats
and a nine foot long human colon that contained
over 40 pounds of fecal matter.
(gags) That last one.
However the most famous inhabitant of the museum is the
soap woman which are the remains of a 19th century woman
believed to have died from yellow fever.
Her burial was in soil that contained a specific
mix of chemicals that turned into literally soap.
Unfortunately as cool as this place is their gift shop
does not include a jar with a sheep fetus inside,
just a goat fetus.
Yeah there's a let down.
Number six is the Gelato Museum.
If you've ever wanted to know just how
historically important gelato is
because hey, who hasn't?
Then this museum is for you.
The gelato museum in Bologna, Italy
offers an exploration of the history of gelato
from the earliest recipes in the 16th century
to modern gelato artists.
The museum is set up inside the headquarters of Carpigiani,
a company that manufactures
ice cream machines and equipment.
On display is collection of gelato machines
including an interactive tour of the history of gelato
and plenty of samples, yummy!
Adjacent to the museum is the Gelato University
that offers hands on lessons in gelato creation
allowing you to create the next flavor sensation
outside of Nutella and rocky road.
Which are hard to beat.
Alright well this one isn't as weird as it is delicious
but I thought I'd switch it up a bit.
You know, give you some hope between the talk
of penises and fecal filled colons.
And hope is over, onto the next!
Number seven is the International Cryptozoology Museum.
Not long ago I made an entire video
on the existence of cryptids,
those creatures whose existence have been suggested
but never proven by the scientific community.
Well in 2003 Loren Coleman launched an entire museum
dedicated to them in Portland, Maine.
Housing information from everything from
the Loch Ness Monster to Sasquatch,
the collection exceeds 10,000 items focusing
on the study of these legendary creatures.
Notable items include a baby Bigfoot, a fur covered doll
and dozens of casts made from Bigfoot's famous foot.
Beyond Bigfoot there are samples of yeti hair,
alleged pieces of a Fiji mermaid
and a plaster cast of the
Louisiana Honey Island Swamp Monster.
Don't worry the museum doesn't take itself too seriously,
so I doubt that you'll run into an employee that
will talk about the prevalence of Bigfoot.
As for patrons however there's bound to be
a few nut job Bigfoot bounty hunters.
They'll talk your ear off!
Number eight is the Lunchbox Museum.
If you want a museum to remind you of
your childhood years in the lunch room,
eagerly anticipating the lunch
that your parents packed for you,
then you might enjoy the Lunchbox Museum.
Weirdo!
The museum is located in Columbus, Georgia
and admission will only cost you the price of a lunchbox
or five dollars.
The owner of the museum Allen Woodall Jr has gathered
the world's largest collection
of metal lunchboxes totaling 3500.
The exhibit includes lunchboxes
and their matching thermoses,
from the early to mid 1900's.
In fact some of the boxes are so rare that they
fetch anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 a piece.
With distinctive character designs like Woody Woodpecker
and Dr. Spock it's probably one of the few museums
where you can possibly find an example of
something that you owned as a child.
If you're not into lunchboxes thankfully they also
have on display a decent collection of flasks.
You know for the harder edged kids in the classroom.
Number nine is the Barbed Wired Museum.
Unless you're a rancher
or someone who recently escaped prison,
I doubt you've taken a fair look at barbed wired.
So some brilliant fellow from Kansas decided to construct
a barbed wire museum you know for,
all the folks that were missing out.
Inside you'll find over 2,000 varieties of barbed wire.
Including a diorama on display showing early use.
To tour the museum is free
but like other museums this one is particularly
important to only look and never touch.
Unless of course you got a tetanus shot
but even then it's still not recommended.
The folks that run the museum have been know to say,
some say it was The Sixth Gun that settled the West,
others know better.
Yeah no let's stick with The Sixth Gun,
there's something much cooler about a show down
rather than two guys throwing barbed wire at each other.
It just, that doesn't sound right.
And Number 10 the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments.
Back in the good old Medieval times when
bathing was strange and teeth were uncommon,
people during that time got quite
creative when it came to torturing.
The amount of instruments that have survived
through the years is enough to fill a museum
and if you drive down to Bruges in Belgium,
you'll find just that.
The museum houses a collection of
more than 100 torture devices.
Some of them obvious in their use
but others can be more bizarre in their design.
The museum is also one of the oldest buildings in Bruges
and is thought to have once been
a prison in the 12th century.
You know as if it wasn't creepy enough already.
They are open seven days a week
and they urge you to follow them on Twitter
and like their Facebook page.
You know cause that's the type of stuff you
want to see in your timeline on a Monday morning.
Great way to start the week!
And that's all for this video you guys,
thanks for watching
and I just wanted to remind you that
your boy is on the Instagrams!
I don't know, I don't know what that was.
If you haven't added me yet you should definitely do that,
my username is Matthew Santoro
and that's the place where I post all kinds of stuff
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Peace!
(Electronic Music)