MythBusters: Difference between revisions

Gonzo pop culture meets off-beat science as Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman -- twoHyneman—two special effects guys with [[Catch Phrase|over thirty years of experience between them]] -- take—take on urban legends, ancient myths and tall tales of all kinds to debunk (or confirm!) them. The show debutedran infrom January 2003 and isto stillFebruary ongoing2018.

When a legend fails to pan out, as it often does, they usually escalate matters to the point where the legend's expected results ''do'' occur. This process is affectionately called "replicate the myth, then duplicate the results" -- usually—usually at a point so far beyond the normal parameters that it isn't even ''remotely'' plausible that it happened by accident (or at the very least, so incredibly dangerous that anyone capable of sound judgment wouldn't attempt it in the first place). Usually these escalations involve entertaining explosions (such as a popular one in a March 2005 episode which ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|vaporized]]'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|a cement truck]], or, even better, an April 2009 episode where they [[TheresThere Is No Kill Like Overkill|annihilated a car with a rocket-sled]]).

Not every myth is busted, though -- theythough—they are happy (although frequently surprised) when they prove that a story, however wild, is at the very least plausible. In "Big Rig Myths", they managed to confirm all three myths, and in their first episode devoted to viral videos, the myths that made it to air went four-for-four in confirmation. And so far, nearly every myth has some kernel of truth, whether or not it may or may not be applicable to whether the myth is plausible.

They don't have official education in scientific experimentation, but are just skilled in engineering, model making, construction and special effects (prior to the show starting, Jamie's M5 Industries was a sought-after model-making company, and Grant and Tory worked for [[ILM]]). Because of that they carry across an image of being [[One of Us]]; their reactions are much like regular people. [[Myth BustersMythBusters/Quotes|Here are some examples of the dialogue.]]

In 2010, the show began airing a redux version of older episodes called "Buster's Cut", which features on-screen pop-ups containing behind-the-scenes notes, bits of humor and trivia, and points about the myth being tested that didn't make it on the episode.

See Also: [[Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]] lists, well... Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters.

* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: There are a few moments where the Mythbusters test a myth and admit they are stretching the boundaries of how it could have happened--thehappened—the reason being that some myths are purely about whether it could be done at all, not whether it could be accomplished in the exact manner claimed in the myth. For example, in trying to build a crossbow out of paper while in prison, they agreed that you could use a table-mounted sander to shave a plastic spoon for use as the tip of the arrow. Therefore, they simply assumed it would be possible for an inmate to do the same thing scraping it against the cell wall.

** .... And then they end up playing it straight almost as often as not, usually when a particularly dubious myth is confirmed. Perfect example: pretty much ''any'' myth involving duct tape, but ESPECIALLY {{spoiler|the recent{{when}} duct tape airplane myth}}.

** Most recently{{when}} Adam when he was attempting to use an excavator to climb into the back of a truck.

* [[Broke the Rating Scale]]: Most myths (from season 2 onward) adhere to the Busted/Plausible/Confirmed scale. There are, however, some deviations. Type 2s are not uncommon ("Plausible, but ludicrous" or variants being the ''most'' common), and there has been a Type 4. During the Supersized Special, the MythBusters performed a test that failed in a way that did not yield useful data--namelydata—namely, Supersize Rocket Car (the car blew up as it was supposed to launch). Because the test yielded nothing useful, the MythBusters simply called it "Appropriately Supersized".

** Averted when they tested the "poop hits the fan" saying -- Jamiesaying—Jamie was just as splattered as Adam after the final test. (And ''Adam'' was the only one wearing a protective jumpsuit. Jamie was in his normal attire.)

* [[But Now I Must Go]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120502033433/http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/meet/jessi-combs.html Jessi's farewell letter.]

** "No Pain, No Gain" included using this trope as part of the testing -- specificallytesting—specifically, whether or not cursing increased your ability to tolerate pain (it did).

** Using ping-pong balls to raise a sunken ship (true, but you need about a million of them);<ref>Not that this kept the concept from being used in 1964 to salvage the sunken freighter the Al-Kuwait.</ref>;

** Jamie and Adam were in the 2006 ''[[Darwin Awards]]'', where they played two guys running an army-surplus store from which a [[Darwin Awards]] winner buys a rocket -- leadingrocket—leading to the JATO rocket myth.

** The second episode of Fall 2010 was a cross over with Discovery series ''[[Storm Chasers]]''. They didn't so much test tornado myths as put the chaser's souped up [[Cool Car|armored tornado chase vehicles]] to the torture test (with a jet engine) and design/build/test a prototype portable single-person tornado shelter that would protect a person caught away from the car from 180 &nbsp;mph winds.

* [[Deserted Island]]: Subverted in the "Duct Tape Island" episode. We never see anyone else but the two [[Myth Busters]]'''MythBusters''' (and, briefly, some of the camera crew), but Adam and Jamie [[Lampshade Hanging|noted that the beach they landed on had quite a few footprints]], and the overhead drawings included maps that looked suspiciously like {{spoiler|the island of Oahu (the most populous island in the Hawaiian chain)}}.

* [[Dream Team]]: Occasionally all five [[Myth Busters]]'''MythBusters''' will come together to work on a single myth like "Compact Compact", "Border Slingshot" and recently{{when}} "Seesaw Saga".

** A recent{{when}} Discovery Channel commercial claims that they've used ''15 miles'' of duct tape over the course of the show.

* [[Eek! aA Mouse!]]:

** A less spectacular (but generally weirder) case of this involves the [[Myth Busters]]'''MythBusters''' and microwaves. In season one, Jamie decided to try building a "super-microwave" using four magnetrons pointed at a metal box. A glass of water was measured before and after being exposed to the microwave for several minutes. The super-microwave was very loud while in operation... but was not only ineffective at heating the water, the temperature of the water had ''dropped'' a couple of degrees.

{{quote|'''Grant:''' Only on ''[[Myth Busters]]MythBusters''.}}

** [[The Hero]] -- Adam—Adam. He is more of the actual host of the show. "I like to live my life as part action hero and part cartoon character."

** [[The Lancer]] -- Jamie—Jamie. He owns M-5 and is the most tech savvy of the team, but he brought on Adam considering himself to be [[The Comically Serious|too dull.]]

** [[The Big Guy]] -- Tory—Tory. Reasonably athletic, he is the one who usually tests the more physically challenging myths.

** [[The Smart Guy]] -- First—First [[Wrench Wench|Scottie]], then Grant

** [[The Chick]] -- Kari—Kari. The artist of the team, she usually does any sculpting, casting, and the like needed for a myth -- thoughmyth—though she's very intelligent and not afraid to [[Fetish Fuel|get physical]] herself -- asherself—as evidenced by her fondness for high-powered firearms and the time when she tore apart the car that Grant and Tory had to rebuild with duct tape.

** [[Sixth Ranger]] -- Jessi—Jessi. She filled in for Kari, but was more Gearhead over [[Wrench Wench]].

** [[Guest Star Party Member]] -- The—The MythTerns: Christine and Jess. Both were featured on-and-off in various episodes, then left the show.

** There's also their stable of frequently-contacted experts: former FBI agent Frank Doyle, Bomb Squad Sgt. J. D. Nelson, rocketry expert Erik Gates (may he Rest in Peace), Firearms expert Lt. Alan Normandy, and audio engineer Dr. Roger Schwenke. Series announcer Robert Lee is more of a [[Spirit Advisor]]: he explains all the myths and narrates the action and can only be heard by the audience. He also offers "advice" to the [[Myth Busters]]'''MythBusters''', but because his narration recorded after the fact they tend to ignore it, often to their own peril.

* [[Freak-Out]]: The Narrator has a brief one in the Trombone Revisit episode after hearing [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene|Jamie tell J.D. how]] [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|he used to play the tuba while doing business on the toilet.]]

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: When Jamie - who for all his [[Memetic Badass|Memetic Badassery]]ery is ''terrified'' of heights - finally crossed a bridge made of Duct Tape that was suspended 150 feet in the air at a dry dock.

** An easy one to miss especially since it references the space shuttle and has a mundane secondary meaning, but when Tory is trying to lift 200 &nbsp;lbs of weights, Grant cautions him to be careful or he'll blow out his o-ring. One could say he was making a NASA joke about Tory hurting his back, but since Tory was already using proper lifting technique, one could also say Grant was making a job of another sort.

** In morethe recentlater seasons, they addadded flavor by having a (digitally added) member of the Build Team standing a distance away explaining some aspect of the build itself.

** Kari's kind of funny when she's been breathing in helium, also -- whichalso—which is likewise seen in the Helium Raft episode as they struggle to deflate it again.

* [[Hidden Purpose Test]]: When Jamie and Adam tested the [[Mission: Impossible]] [[Latex Perfection]] mask, they tried it out on several observers who thought they were helping with a different myth.

* [[Honorary Uncle]]: Considering Adam's description of the team as [[True Companions|"like family"]], it is fitting that Jamie has been occasionally referred to as "Uncle Jamie" -- twice—twice by ''Adam'', of all people ("Ancient Death Ray", 2004 -- during2004—during the "What is Bulletproof?" segment, and again during "Tablecloth Chaos" in 2010) and also by Robert Lee, the narrator ("Viral Hour", 2008, during the Sawdust cannon section.).

* [[Identical Stranger]]: Jamie is starting to bear an increasingly striking resemblance to [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Robotnik]]. Others feel he looks more like Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan guitarist [http://thelivingend.com/vBforum/showthread.php?p=152290 Jeff "Skunk" Baxter]{{Dead link}}, Swedish painter [https://web.archive.org/web/20150914213556/http://www.wholesalechinaoilpainting.com/upload1/file-admin/images/new4/Carl%20Larsson-757438.jpg Carl Larsson], or, as noted on [[This Very Wiki]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] [[wikipedia:File:Nietzsche187a.jpg|Nietzsche]].

** Adam bears a scarier resemblance to [https://web.archive.org/web/20120307213412/http://totallylookslike.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/adam-savage-totally-looks-like-danny-elfman.jpg Danny] [[Danny Elfman|Elfman]]. He's also been compared to a "foul-mouthed [[Half Life|Gordon Freeman]]".

** Grant looks like he could easily be a close relative of [[Flash Forward 2009FlashForward|John Cho]].

** Then in a recent{{when}} episode, they decided to hang at the top of a building, ''right over a window ledge that sent Tory to the emergency room with a severely gashed open knee when he fell''. Oh, did we mention that the test was to see how long you could hang on to the edge of a roof before you fell?

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: About evenly divided between the two leads, though as a general rule Adam's tend to be more blatantly funny and Jamie's more intentionally groan-inducing. For instance, after successfully making a lead balloon, Jamie suggested that next time they should take a crack at a [[Led Zeppelin|lead zeppelin]]. And recently{{when}}, he proposed calling an airborne dummy "Ariel" ("aerial"). These are also staples of Robert Lee's episode narrations.

* [[Irony]]: While building model [[Hindenburg|Hindenburgs]]s, which they intend to set ablaze later, one of them catches fire while Jamie is doing some repairs to the welds; Adam points out it is a textbook case of irony.

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]: Peter Rees, veteran maker of science documentaries. Creator, producer, writer, and director of ''[[Myth Busters]]'''MythBusters''''', and the guy who personally cast Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on the show. Never seen onscreen except in certain specials like ''MythBusters Revealed''. (Rees left the show in 2006.)

* [[More Expendable Than You]]: Sort of. Adam once was disallowed by the producers from trying a dangerous myth because of insurance, while Tory apparently they had no problem with. Also, whenever Jamie and Adam are detonating something, they almost always have either a robot or a remote detonator to do it with. But half the time the Build Team is blowing something up, they just have Tory light it and run like hell instead. But Tory may be getting more respect these days, as the insurance company recently{{when}} denied him permission to be pushed off the back of a truck by a running treadmill machine. They wound up going with sand-filled overalls (named Tory's "sand-in" by Kari) instead.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Common, usually before the device is even completed. But they just soldier on whenever it happens. In a recent{{when}} episode, Adam needed to chop a bunch of stuff out of a car so the guys could add a safety rig. He got carried away with the saw and chopped out the power line to the fuel pump...which then had to be replaced, because they needed the car to run. Oops.

** It happens whenever there is a malfunction in the rig they've set up for some large scale project. But the two biggest ones happened during the Demolition Derby special. A semi-truck went off its tow cable and was about 30 feet from going into Alameda Bay; if the grass bank hadn't been there to slow it down it likely would have. Another was in regards to an "improvised convertible" when a car went underneath a semi-trailer. It worked too well -- thewell—the car cruised underneath the trailer, and the brake system design to stop the car after the collision failed. The car then hit the dirt embankment behind the trailer at near full speed, and ''flipped over it.'' Tory and Kari went from cheering about the car going under the semi to looking at each other and the camera in shock and then wondering what was actually on the other side...

** Adam later gave an interview where he revealed it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAcMqWLBK8U&feature=channel wasn't the Build Team's idea, the producer made them do it], and it terrified and pissed him off to such an extent that ''the entire crew was mad for him,'' and when instructed to follow Adam, told the producer where he could shove that idea. In a show where they shamelessly recorded decapitation of dead animals, devices that can kill people, Kari undergoing Chinese Water Torture ,<ref>She volunteered, but it reportedly bothered her for at least a few days until the bruises on her wrists faded</ref>, and Adam vomiting multiple times ,<ref>due to seasickness</ref>, even they decided it would be crossing the line to bother him after what went down.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Seriously. These guys give ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' a run for its money.

** For an example for a retested myth that remained busted, the myth of Archimedes' solar "[[Death Ray]]" was retested after massive [[Internet Backdraft]] with the Mythbusters actually telling the complainers to put their money where their mouth was and come on the show to prove it was possible. They couldn't. And at the end, a team composed of the Mythbusters, MIT, and one viewer set up an array of bronze mirrors (only things available at that time period) and attempted to set fire to an accurately made Roman ship that was actually in the water. Even after hours of coordinated efforts nothing happened other thenthan some smoke. In the end, they set fire to the ship by tossing a jar of burning fuel at it. This myth even got ''another'' re-test, with none other than ''[[Barack Obama]]'' himself requesting it. It's still busted, though Jamie did comment that all of the mirrors on shore were blinding him (he was on the boat in a fire-resistant suit). He cited that as the "kernel of truth" from whence the myth came.

** Although he DOES''does'' have a girlfriend (hopefully not a robot...)

** [[Executive Meddling|Discovery recently mandated]]{{when}} Jamie and Adam host a new show, ''[[Unchained Reaction]]'', which is based around this concept -- [http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/mythbusters/projects/adam-savage-on-the-mythbusters-new-show-unchained-reaction-7406983 to their disdain].

* [[Rule of Funny]]: Pretty much why Adam -- andAdam—and Kari, Tory and Grant (to a lesser extent) -- are there in the first place; if the show didn't have to be entertaining, it'd just be a bunch of Jamies.

** Not intentionally, but ''how many times'' have they crashed through a fence -- nofence—no, not ''a'' fence, the '''same fence''' -- at the Alameda Naval Air Station?

* [[Similar to the Show]]: Recent{{when}} [[Product Placement]] has involved the Build Team "busting myths" for one of the show's sponsors at the start of a commercial break.

** Invoked so [[Anvilicious|Anviliciously]]ly prior to Tory riding a [[Rule of Cool|jet-powered skateboard]] as to pretty well telegraph the eventual subversion.

* [[You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!]]: In an early episode Adam was working on the Chicken Cannon that involved welding a 4 &nbsp;ft. tall pipe standing vertically on what will become the tank for holding the air pressure. Adam paused for a moment to adjust his glasses and a piece came off and fell ''into'' the pipe. Adam just stared bemused into the narrow tube, then at the camera, then back to the tube.

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