Many people think that museums are boring. They are full of all that old stuff and if you want to know what something is, then you have to read. Boring! So for those looking for an alternative to the same old “history lesson in a building” that comes from most traditional museum visits, I offer these five fun, weird, and quirky museums.

1. The Museum of Bad Art – Located in Dedham Square, just outside of Boston, this is a sanctuary for all things hackneyed and wrong in the art world. Emphasizing that this is not about incompetence, the museum’s website notes that its collection is “from the work of talented artists gone awry to works of exuberant, if crude, execution by artists who barely control the brush.” MOBA is worth the trip.

2. The International UFO Museum and Research Center: Dangerously close to the mainstream, this exploration of UFO sightings and cover-ups in Roswell, New Mexico is the premier UFO museum on the planet. Visitors to this museum are likely to be a greater oddity than the exhibits themselves.

3. The Corn Palace: Art, history and corn come together in this South Dakota tribute to all things “corn.” The Corn Palace is covered in murals made from corn that change every year. Learn how corn grows and enjoy a free guided tour that explains the process involved in creating these one-of-a-kind corn murals.

4. Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia – Yes. At the Pez Museum. See the Guinness World Record: Snowman Pez dispenser, the world’s largest at nearly 8 feet tall. A must see for those with a Pez obsession.

5. The Historical Museum of Torture: On display in San Francisco, this museum explores the various instruments of torture used throughout man’s existence. Learn more than you’d like to know about the Iron Maiden, the Cudgel, the Inquisitorial Chairs, the Heretic Forks, and the Branks.

Honorable Mention: The National Museum of Health and Medicine – I feel like a cover-up here. The name sounds incredibly boring and the website tries to mislead you with this dry description… The Museum houses a collection of over 24 million items including archival materials, anatomical and pathological specimens, medical instruments and artifacts, and data-based medical research. microscope slides. collections

What they should be saying is… See deformed fetuses, birth defects, pieces of Abraham Lincoln’s skull, and more morbid anatomical oddities. That’s what’s really in this museum.