Yes, These 20 Weird and Wacky Museums Actually Exist

The museumgoer with a sweet tooth will crave a visit to this interactive exhibition—an homage to America's favorite frozen treat. Whether you're in the sherbet room, the Popsicle room, or the indoor pool (filled with over 10 million plastic sprinkles), or standing in front of the holographic scratch-and-sniff banana wall, you're in store for plenty of Instagrammable eye candy as well as samples of real ice cream to satisfy the hunger aroused by your visit.

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The world's largest collection of banana paraphernalia, the International Banana Museum boasts over 20,000 trinkets, from salt-and-pepper shakers to banana-shaped record players. Of course, it wouldn't be a banana museum without real bananas, so the museum offers chocolate-covered bananas, banana splits, and four types of banana soda to munch or sip on while you're exploring the halls.

Think your artwork is amateurish? You might get a boost of confidence when you glimpse the comically flawed creations showcased at the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA). A commemoration of well-intentioned artistic achievements gone awry, the museum proudly curates and displays a selection of "Poor Traits," "Unlikely Landscapes," and other collections of underwhelming non-commercially produced artworks obtained from thrift or secondhand stores or yard sales.

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While most artists scrawl their masterpieces on paper or canvas, Barney Smith prefers toilet seats. And instead of hanging in a museum, Smith's artworks live in a roadside detached garage he opens every day to visitors from near and far. The artworks, exceeding 1,300 in total, are blinged-up renditions of ordinary toilet seats he has collected over a lifetime as a plumber. They run the gamut from Mardi Gras themes to troll-doll-inspired works, and everything in between. Although the inventive toilet toppers aren't for sale, Smith offers tours of his extensive collection to any art lover willing to call in advance.

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Candy memorabilia collectors have amassed an abundance of Pez dispensers over time, but nowhere will you find a larger collection of the beloved mechanical candy shooters than at this multicolored museum. The venue features one of the largest collections of Pez dispensers and paraphernalia in the world, including basic and character dispensers ranging from Santa Claus to Tweety Bird.

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What began as Patricia Arnell's penchant for collecting small-scale three-dimensional objects led to the founding of this 15,000-square-foot museum of miniatures. Dubbed "The Mini Time Machine," the museum transports visitors to other time periods through antique and contemporary miniature exhibits that depict life on different continents and in eras spanning 250 years of history.

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Located in the Kazoobie Kazoos Factory, The Kazoo Museum commemorates the history and manufacture of the humble musical instrument by hosting one of the largest kazoo collections in the world. The 200 buzz-worthy pieces housed in glass at the museum include kazoo music sheets, recordings, and, of course, kazoos, including one featured in "The Partridge Family." If a visit puts you in the mood to spit out a tune on your own kazoo, the museum will even show you how to make a kazoo to take home.

Drinks are on the house at the Beer Can Museum—literally. The 42-year-old museum boasts a collection of 4,000 cold ones that are either suspended from the ceilings or stacked on high shelves. The beers originate from the collection of the museum's founder and former owner, Al Drew, and range from vintage steel flat-top and cone-top cans produced between 1935 and 1960, to novelties such as Billy Beer, made by former President Jimmy Carter's brother.

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While toy fads have come and gone with time, the yo-yo has remained an object of obsession for the young and the young at heart. Dedicated to preserving the popularity of the humble toy on a string, the Yo-Yo Museum features the largest display of yo-yos in the world. The largest, dubbed "Big-Yo," earned a place in the 1982 "Guinness Book of World Records" as the "World's Biggest Working Yo-Yo." As you might expect, maneuvering the 256-pound yo-yo is no easy feat—the museum uses a giant crane to lift and lower the wooden disc along the string.

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Coin-operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines may not seem to be in favor with kids today, but you'd never know it from the well-preserved collection of more than 300 of these and other nostalgic artifacts housed at Musée Mécanique. Whether you're in search of a coin-operated piano or an orchestrion, a single instrument that sounds like an entire orchestra, you can spot one in working order in founder Edward Zelinsky's unsurpassed collection—a lifelong labor of love.

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Math theory plus interactive games equals a whole lotta fun at this museum, which aims to boost public awareness of the field of mathematics. The 30 playful exhibits that fill the museum, ranging from the "Square-Wheeled Trike" to "The Mathenaeum," an exercise in transforming basic shapes into three-dimensional models, give even the arithmetically averse a newfound appreciation for numbers.

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Dedicated to dispelling myths about and highlighting the contributions of hobos, this museum, which the local hobo community converted from an old movie theater, features a collection of books, poetry, clothing, music, and crafts created by hobos, an often misunderstood fraternity of traveling folk that occupies a permanent place in Americana.

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