1

The Museum of Bad Art (Massachusetts)

Founded in 1994, MOBA showcases art "too bad to be ignored," featuring paintings so spectacularly awful they circle back to being captivating . We're talking off-kilter portraits, baffling subject matter, and techniques that defy explanation.

The collection includes masterpieces like "Lucy in the Field with Flowers," featuring a grandmother dancing in a meadow while wearing what might be a nightgown. Each piece comes with a tongue-in-cheek description that treats these disasters with the same reverence the Met gives to Rembrandts.

2

The International Banana Museum (California)

This museum holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of banana-related items . With over 25,000 banana things crammed into one yellow-painted space, it's exactly as bonkers as it sounds. Banana phones, banana lamps, banana art—if you can slap a banana on it, it's here.

The museum's motto is "Yes, we have no bananas... we have more!" which pretty much sums up the gloriously ridiculous vibe.

3

The Museum of Broken Relationships (California)

This surprisingly poignant museum displays donated objects from failed romances , each accompanied by a brief story from the heartbroken donor. Started in Croatia and once home to an outpost in Los Angeles (before it closed in 2017), it transforms personal pain into a shared human experience. You'll find everything from wedding dresses to an actual prosthetic leg, each item representing a relationship that didn't quite make it.

What could be depressing is actually oddly uplifting: there's humor, anger, relief, and occasionally shocking pettiness on display. One exhibit features an axe someone used to destroy their ex's furniture.

4

The International Cryptozoology Museum (Maine)

This Portland museum is dedicated to creatures that may or may not exist , from Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster to the Chupacabra. Founded by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, it houses hair samples, plaster casts of mysterious footprints, and endless speculation about what's lurking in our forests and lakes.

5

The Mustard Museum (Wisconsin)

Wisconsin's National Mustard Museum celebrates that yellow squeeze-bottle staple with 6,000+ varieties of mustard from all 50 states and over 70 countries . Curator Barry Levenson started collecting after his beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series in 1986, and a voice in a grocery store told him to pursue mustard instead. As one does.

The museum offers free tastings because, apparently, there's a whole world of mustard beyond French's that many of us have been missing. From champagne mustard to chocolate mustard to varieties with names you can't pronounce, it's a full-on condiment education.

6

The Museum of Clean (Idaho)

Spanning 75,000 square feet, it chronicles the history of cleaning from ancient times to modern day . It features vintage vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and cleaning products that would horrify today's safety inspectors.

The museum makes a compelling case that cleaning technology has shaped civilization more than we realize. You'll see how our ancestors scrubbed, swept, and sanitized before electricity, and gain a weird appreciation for your Swiffer.

7

The Mutter Museum (Pennsylvania)

This Philadelphia institution houses medical oddities, anatomical specimens, and antique medical equipment that can look more like torture devices. Think preserved organs, skeletal anomalies, and a wall of skulls that's both educational and nightmare-inducing.

The museum's most famous resident is the "Soap Lady," whose body turned into a soap-like substance after burial. There is also a sample of Albert Einstein’s brain tissue on display, because why not?

8

The American Toby Jug Museum (Illinois)

Toby jugs are those quirky ceramic pitchers shaped like people's heads and bodies, usually depicting jolly characters in tricorn hats. This Evanston museum houses over 8,000 of them, representing the world's largest collection of these peculiar drinking vessels .

The collection spans centuries and includes rare jugs worth thousands of dollars alongside kitschy modern versions. You'll learn that Toby jugs have depicted everyone from Winston Churchill and Sherlock Holmes to characters from literature and politics.

9

The Spam Museum (Minnesota)

This 14,000-square-foot museum in Austin, Minnesota, celebrates the canned pork product that fed armies and annoyed email users everywhere . Interactive exhibits let you pretend to work on the Spam production line, and you'll learn more about processed meat than you thought possible.

10

The International UFO Museum and Research Center (New Mexico)

Located in Roswell, the site of the most famous alleged UFO crash in history, this museum is ground zero for alien conspiracy theories. Founded by people who claim firsthand knowledge of the 1947 incident, it presents eyewitness accounts, declassified government documents, and enough speculation to keep you wondering all night .

Beyond Roswell, the museum explores UFO sightings worldwide, alien abduction stories, and government cover-up theories that range from plausible to completely bonkers.

1

Josephine Baker

Image: Richie Lugo

Josephine Baker was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture , the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics . During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the 1927 revue Un vent de Folie caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting only of a short skirt made of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.

Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the "Black Venus," the "Black Pearl," the "Bronze Venus," and the "Creole Goddess." She aided the French Resistance during World War II, and after the war, she was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de Guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by General Charles de Gaulle.

2

Rudy Vallée

Image: Matt Botsford

Rudy Vallée was the first male singer to rise from local radio broadcasts in New York City to national popularity as a "crooner." He had a thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than jazz songs. But his singing, saxophone playing, and the innovative arrangements he wrote for his band attracted the attention of a rapidly increasing number of listeners, especially young women.

Singers needed strong voices to fill theaters in the days before microphones. Crooners had soft voices that were suited to the intimacy of radio; the microphones, in this case, promoted direct access to "a vulnerable and sensuous interior," or, in other words, "a conjured intimacy." Vallée was one of the first celebrity radio vocalists.

3

Bobby Darin

Image: Jack Sharp

Bobby Darin was an American teen idol and, later, an adult crooner who, in 1958, co-wrote and recorded his first million-selling single, "Splish Splash," followed by "Dream Lover" and his covers of "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea," which brought him worldwide fame.

In the early 1970s, his health was beginning to fail due to a weak heart. The knowledge of Darin's vulnerability had always spurred him on to use his musical talent while still young. Darin died in 1973 at the age of 37 in a hospital recovery room after having open-heart surgery in Los Angeles.

4

Keely Smith

Image: Harry Shelton

American jazz and popular music singer Keely Smith performed and recorded extensively in the 1950s with her then-husband Louis Prima , and throughout the 1960s as a solo artist. The couple were stars in the entertainment business, including stage, television, motion pictures, hit records, and cabaret acts.

They won a Grammy in 1959, its inaugural year, for their smash hit, "That Old Black Magic," which remained on the charts for 18 weeks.

5

The Ink Spots

Image: Jorge Flores

The first band on the list, the Ink Spots was an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s due to their unique musical style, which predated rhythm and blues and doo-wop .

On January 12, 1939, the Ink Spots recorded "If I Didn't Care," one of their biggest hits, selling over 19 million copies and becoming the 8th-best-selling single of all time. Since they disbanded in 1954, there have been well over a hundred vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots," with and without any original members of the group.

6

Ella Fitzgerald

Image: zachrie friesen

A frequent collaborator of the Ink Spots, Ella Fitzgerald was a singer, songwriter, and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song," the "Queen of Jazz," and "Lady Ella." She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, absolute pitch, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Outside her solo career, she recorded music with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and the aforementioned Ink Spots. These partnerships produced songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me," "Cheek to Cheek," "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."

7

Bing Crosby

Image: Alexander Wark Feeney

A one-man orchestra, Bing Crosby was a singer, actor, television producer, radio personality, and businessman. The first multimedia star , he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide.

In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. That same year, Music Digest estimated that Crosby's recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America.

Crosby is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording.

8

Perry Como

Image: Oscar Sutton

Perry Como was an American singer, actor, and television personality who sold over 100 million records worldwide and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast around the world. He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for his recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by our newly acquainted friend, Bing Crosby.

In the official RCA Records memorial in Billboard magazine, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all."

9

Nina Simone

Image: Artem Bryzgalov

A bigger-than-life figure, Nina Simone was a singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger, and civil rights activist whose piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, and accompanied by expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice .

Early in her career, Simone played piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City, where she was told that she would have to sing to her accompaniment. This effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. Simone also became known for her work in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s, and she later fled the United States and settled in France following the assassination of her friend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

10

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Image: Music HQ

The closer of this list is one of the most colorful characters in American music. "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins was a singer-songwriter, musician, actor, film producer, and boxer, best known for his powerful, shouting vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances with macabre props onstage, making him an early pioneer of shock rock.

Screamin’ Jay’s most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You," was created when the entire band was intoxicated during a recording session where "Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon." The resulting performance became his greatest commercial success and reportedly surpassed a million copies in sales.

1

Sam and Ella’s

Image: Jason Leung

We get it—you and your significant other built a restaurant and decided to name it after yourselves. Good for you. But if, by any chance, your combined names sound like a food poisoning illness , that might not be the best choice for a restaurant.

The restaurant could have easily been named Ella and Sam’s, to avoid this issue. But maybe, and just maybe, the couple had a twisted sense of humor and decided to go with it and see how it would turn out.

2

ChubbyBrain

Image: Jakub Żerdzicki

What does this name bring to mind? The image of a chubby brain is probably not an appealing one, and it certainly doesn’t convey the idea of a venture capitalist database. Yet, that’s exactly what ChubbyBrain is.

If your business needs funding, this company will analyze its database of venture capitalists, grant providers, and investors and match you up with those who would be most sympathetic to your cause , thus maximizing your chance of successful fundraising. A valuable service, hidden behind a weird name, indeed.

3

Wesabe

Image: Andre Taissin

A word that sounds similar to a Japanese sushi condiment was chosen as the name for this company, founded in 2005 to help users track their spending habits. The idea was a noble one: assist people in getting out of debt and learning how to make wise financial decisions.

But, alas, the company was not able to attract an audience. The name Wesabe was likely intended as a play on "We Save," but it didn’t translate that easily and it ended up being a nonsensical name for a good idea.

4

Cuil

Image: Growtika

There was a time when search engines were more diverse and prevalent than they are today, at least for the general public. Before Google became the giant it is now, Altavista, AskJeeves, Lycos, Yahoo!, and others were the go-to sites for browsing the web.

Cuil was one of those search engines, it boasted the largest search index and the fastest queries . But, for some reason, it shut down in 2010. The name might have played a part in that, as it had no connection to searching and its pronunciation was unclear. Granted, many search engines had equally odd names and still made it. But it certainly didn’t help in Cuil’s case.

5

Boring Business Systems

Image: Rodeo Project Management Software

If your name is also a word, with a meaning attached to it, then it would be wise to consider if associating it with a product or service is a good idea, or not. Named after one of its original executives, Allan D. Boring, this network services and IT support company is unashamed of its namesake. In fact, it embraces it, assuring outsiders that there is "nothing boring" about its features and services.

6

Xobni

Image: Solen Feyissa

One would be hard-pressed to link this name to a product or service, that is, unless you were looking at it reflected in a mirror because Xobni is "Inbox" spelled backward. Yes, this company made email-related products , until it shut down in 2014.

Besides the unoriginal idea of simply spelling your product name backward, it doesn’t help if the resulting word sounds odd and unrelatable.

7

Lawdingo

Image: Tingey Injury Law Firm

The idea of having a Saul Goodman-type lawyer might be appealing to some, but for the most part, people believe that the law is serious business and should be treated as such. Lawdingo is a web service that provides affordable legal advice for both individuals and businesses.

While the idea behind it seems great, the word "dingo" can hardly be associated with the kind of characteristics one searches for in a law firm, like quality and professionalism.

8

Qwikster

Image: Phil Hearing

When choosing a literal brand name, it’s generally a good practice to select one that clearly associates with the product or service offered. Qwikster was a company launched by Netflix in 2011 to focus on the DVD-by-mail service branch of the business.

According to the people in charge, the name Qwikster was chosen because it referred to quick delivery. Or at least that is what they thought. While the name does have a rhythmic quality, it doesn’t really connect to the service it was meant to represent.

9

AmericInn Hotel

Image: Marten Bjork

Some brands thrive despite having less-than-ideal names. AmericInn Hotel is a mid-priced hotel franchise consisting of 240 locations across the U.S. While AmericInn has done arguably well for itself, one can only wonder how much better it might have performed with a different name.

The problem isn't the name itself, but its awkward spelling. Any brand thinking about purposefully misspelling common words, should proceed with extreme caution and only use this resource if it truly makes business sense.

10

Backrub

Image: Greg Bulla

As strange as Google might have sounded at first, BackRub would have sounded even weirder had it gained the same level of recognition. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named their first search engine BackRub in 1996. A year later, BackRub became too large to operate on the Stanford University servers that hosted the website, prompting them to register the now-familiar domain name Google.com.

While using the expression "rub it" in the same way we use "google it" today might have been a possibility, it certainly does not have the same ring to it.