MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring American special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors, urban legends, myths and news stories in popular culture.

Mythbusters is typically shot in San Francisco; planning and some experimentation takes place at the cast's workshops; some experiments that require more space or special accommodations are filmed on location around the Bay, and occasionally the show travels to other states or countries. The show is produced by the Australian company Beyond Productions;^[1] it is written, produced and post-produced from Artarmon, Sydney.

History

The show was created for the Discovery Channel under the title Tall Tales or True^[2][3]

In July 2006, an edited thirty-minute version (as opposed to the usual 60 minutes including advertising or 43mins without) of MythBusters began airing on BBC Two in the UK. The episodes shown in the European Discovery Channel sometimes include extra scenes not shown in the U.S. version (some of these scenes eventually make their way into "specials", such as "MythBusters Outtakes").

Format

Each MythBusters episode typically focuses on several unrelated urban legends, popular beliefs, Internet rumors, or other myths. The Discovery Channel hosts MythBusters message board forums on the Internet, where fans discuss previous episodes and post suggestions to Adam and Jamie for future myths to test.^[4] Occasionally episodes are produced in which some or all of the myths are related by theme. To date, three myths have required such extensive preparation and testing that they had entire episodes devoted solely to them,^[5] and four specials have been double length.^[6]

Methods for testing myths are usually planned and executed in a manner to produce visually dramatic results,^[7] which generally involves explosions, fires, and/or vehicle crashes. When a myth is potentially dangerous to an individual, the MythBusters use various stand-ins for humans in their tests. Resident crash test dummy: "Buster", or ballistics gel have long been used, along with other more recent analogues, such as dead pigs and Simulaids. When a myth is low-risk, the cast sometimes performs experiments on themselves, though injuries and mishaps are quite frequent.

The cast usually use their expertise to construct complex, sometimes Rube Goldberg-like mechanical devices with which to perform experiments. Tests are sometimes confined to the workshop, but often require unique conditions which require them to be performed at other locations in San Francisco and other places around the Bay Area.

Common filming locations around the Bay Area include decommissioned (closed) military facilities (such as Naval Air Station Alameda, Naval Station Treasure Island, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and Hamilton Air Force Base), and the Alameda County Sheriff's Bomb Squad and Firearm range. Other filming locations include the Mojave Spaceport in the Mojave Desert, California, and the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada. However, the program sometimes travels to other more exotic cities and countries to test myths, usually for special episodes.

The tests usually follow a two-step process. Dubbed "replicate the circumstances, then duplicate the results" by Savage,^[8] the MythBusters first attempt to recreate the myth to determine if the circumstances as described achieve the alleged outcome. If that fails, they attempt to expand the parameters as much as necessary ? sometimes to absurd lengths ? until the desired results are duplicated. When the exact details of a myth are unclear, the MythBusters will often hold a competition amongst each other to find and implement the best solution. At this segment, the show's narrator often utters the motto "Anything that's worth doing, is worth over-doing.", especially when destructive force is involved.

The thoroughness to which the MythBusters test myths is often unclear due to the time constraints of the episodes. Adam and Jamie have alluded to this many times on the show, and during the Outtakes Special, they specifically stated that while they in fact are very thorough in testing myths and repeat experiments many times in many different configurations, it is simply impossible to display all of it on the show. Beginning in Season 5 they have prompted viewers to visit the show's websitehttp://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html to see less edited versions of experiments, additional scientific explanations, or unaired myths or experiments related to aired ones for each episode. Also, in response to criticism over testing myths incorrectly, the team has produced several "Myths Revisited" episodes, in which they retest myths to see if viewers' complaints have merit. These episodes have resulted in overturning results of several myths, as well as upholding results for different reasons than originally concluded.

There are some myths and urban legends the MythBusters refuse to test. Paranormal concepts, such as aliens or ghosts, are not addressed because they cannot be tested by scientific methods, although one exception, pyramid power, prompted Adam to comment, "No more 'oogie-boogie' myths, please." The program generally avoids experiments harmful to animals, though in one episode they bombarded cockroaches and other laboratory insects with lethal doses of radiation and the cast addressed this, saying that the insects were specifically bred for experiments and would have likely died anyway. The cast also avoids experiments that are of serious risk to people, though they occasionally do subject themselves to testing where the risk is deemed minimal, or only a possibility of minor injury. The book MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time (ISBN 1-4169-0929-X) also gives a list of a dozen urban legends that are unlikely to be explored (although three were eventually tested).

Conclusions of the experiments

By the end of each episode, each myth is rated Busted, Plausible, or Confirmed.

Busted

The myth's results cannot be replicated via either the described parameters nor reasonably exaggerated ones. Often, when a myth is declared Busted, the team will try to see what would be required to replicate the result of the myth, regardless of the facts within the myth itself. This is commonly referred to in the show as "the MythBusters way".

Some of these myths are revisited if the viewers are unsatisfied with the results.

Plausible

Plausible is given under two circumstances:

• The myth's results can only be replicated by expanding some parameters of the myth by a realistic and reasonable margin. This may have been due to facts within the myth having been altered slightly over time by it being told and re-told by the time it was tested by the Mythbusters. Also, certain materials may had to have been substituted for others in some cases as a matter of necessity during the course of the myth being tested, but the new materials are almost always very similar to the materials specified and usually are readily available, so as to prevent it from being prohibitively costly or impractical.

• If there is no documentation of the myth occurring, yet the MythBusters were still able to duplicate it very closely to how the myth was described (such as the myth that states that pirates wore eye patches for enhanced night vision).

The Plausible rating seems to have fallen out of favor somewhat in later seasons, especially in cases where the team could replicate the results within the parameters even if there are no documented incidents replicating the myth, such as "Exploding Tire of Death" in Season 5.

Confirmed

The MythBusters are able to recreate or closely recreate the myth's purported outcome with the described circumstances. A Confirmed myth is usually corroborated with documented evidence of actual occurrences. The term "True" was used in the first season.

Other

Occasionally, the MythBusters give more than one designation to separate aspects of a single myth. In "Bullets Fired Up", they tested whether a bullet fired straight up can fall and kill the shooter or innocent bystanders. They gave the myth all three designations: "Busted", "Plausible", and "Confirmed," based on different circumstances and technicalities they encountered. Other alternate determinations have been used on occasion where results have defied any of the three existing classifications, such as the Supersize Rocket Car, which received a rating of "Appropriately Supersized."

Materials and equipment

Dramatic explosions have become a MythBusters tradition. Note the use of a containing barrier.

• Ballistics gel is used by various agencies to test performance of firearms ammunition, as it approximates some of the physical properties of human muscle tissue. The MythBusters also use special mixtures of it to simulate certain properties of flesh, such as conductivity or blunt impact resistance. The Mythbusters also use blood mediums and even animal (usually pig) body parts such as spines (in the "beheading tire rubber" myth) or hearts (in the "killer cigarette butts myth"), added to the ballistics gel to simulate what would happen to different body parts when conducting their experiments. Different types of ballistics gel have also been used to better observe what has happened to internal parts that were solidified within the gel. A clear ballistics gel was used to observe what impact the butts of cigarettes would have on the human heart when shot out of a shotgun and into the body.
• Cars and other vehicles are often obtained from a scrapheap but are sometimes donated by a fan or purchased in running condition.
• Crash test dummies, such as Buster, are used to depict the effects of certain ? usually hazardous ? myths on the human body.
• Firearms and explosives are used to test myths involving these devices.
• High speed cameras are often used to record moving objects during a test and ? with the help of a scale ruler ? measure the objects' speeds.
• Pig carcasses are used as test dummies in place of Buster the dummy and ballistics gel to more accurately simulate responses of human flesh and bone to certain types of trauma, for example, decomposition, spall or shrapnel damage, and potential dismemberment. On the show, they are referred to as "human analogs."
• Pneumatic actuators and servos are used to help remotely control vehicles and other potentially dangerous machines during testing.
• Polycarbonate sheets are used extensively as barriers for potentially explosive or dangerous experiments. The integrity of the sheets themselves was the subject of one experiment.
• Shackles or quick-releases are used frequently in experiments involving falls or mechanisms under tension. Theater shackles designed for quick release are often used.
• Shock sensors and digital accelerometers are used to measure sudden impacts.

Cast

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the original MythBusters, and explored all the myths on the show using their common background in visual effects. The two work at Hyneman's effects workshop, M5 Industries, and make use of his staff. One of the show's gimmicks is the interaction between Savage and Hyneman, which is similar to a double act, wherein Hyneman plays the straight man and Savage is the comic foil/relief. The show is narrated by Robert Lee, though in some regions his voice is replaced by a local narrator.

As the series progressed, assistants were introduced and ultimately formed into a second team, called the "Build Team", which has its own workshop, called M7^[9], and now splits each episode with the original pair. Each team typically investigates different myths in an episode. The first member of the Build Team introduced was one of Hyneman's artists, Kari Byron, who was needed as a model for an early myth. M5 builder Tory Belleci is typically portrayed as doing much of the construction for the Build Team's myths (formerly assisting the original pair). Grant Imahara, a colleague of Hyneman, was brought in to round out the team with his electrical and robotics experience.

The show has featured other cast members who have since left the series. Scottie Chapman, a metal worker and welder in the shop, was Imahara's predecessor in the Build Team, though she returned in later episodes. The show has had two interns, dubbed "Mythterns": Discovery Channel contest winner Christine Chamberlain and Jess Nelson, who were discovered during a MythBusters viewer building contest. The program originally featured segments with folklorist Heather Joseph-Witham (who explained the origins of certain urban legends) and people with first-hand experience with the myths, but those elements were phased out early in the series. To focus more on the process of debunking the myths, MythBusters continues to feature a variety of guests and semi-regular experts with whom the cast consults. These experts include firearms expert Sgt. Al Normandy of the South San Francisco Police Department and retired FBI explosives expert Frank Doyle. Doyle is a particularly common guest expert, given the producers' predilection for his area of expertise.

The show also features several inanimate "cast members". The first and most commonly used is Buster — a crash test dummy used to test more dangerous myth tests. He has been extensively damaged and rebuilt over the course of the series and has had an entire special devoted to his redesign and rebuilding as "Buster 2.0." In 2008, the original Buster frame was finally retired, and an entirely new dummy replaced Buster 2.0 unannounced.

Buster has been supplemented with additional dummies manufactured by Simulaids, which were named "Jane", "Simulaid Susie", and "Rescue Randy". They were introduced in the "Killer Brace Position" myth. Sometimes, when it is likely the subject will be completely destroyed, full-body ballistics gel dummies have been used. The first of these used was nicknamed Ted (for bus'ted).

Warnings and self-censorship

MythBusters places a strong emphasis on viewer safety due to the nature of the myths tested, often dealing with purported household scenarios. All episodes begin with Adam and Jamie giving a disclaimer against attempting the experiments seen on the show; most episodes also feature a second warning halfway through the running time. These disclaimers are not aired with the broadcasts on Discovery UK or Australian channel SBS.

The show employs various degrees of safety- or courtesy-related censorship. Instead of the standard bleeping, vulgar language or the names of ingredients used in the production of hazardous materials are usually covered over with sound effects which are humorous or relevant to the myth. Other potentially offensive subject matter is glossed over with euphemisms or addressed in a strictly scientific sense.^[10] As with audio, visible chemical labels used to produce dangerous materials are blurred out. In one such episode where dangerous chemicals were used, Adam described how to make a compound by "mixing blur with blur", comically recognizing the censorship of the chemicals. In certain scenarios (such as building a bomb), they also admit that even professionals such as themselves are required to seek special permission/assistance from the government or prohibited from engaging in a certain activity and take the opportunity to reinforce the disclaimer. In case of making explosives they mostly do not show everything they put into it, or how it was put together.

Many brand names of items used in the show are also edited out, usually by blurring or covering up the branding with a MythBusters sticker. The only exception is when brand names are specific to the myth (such as the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment).

Name lawsuit

In January 2005, children's author and adventurer Andrew Knight (aka "Bowvayne") commenced legal proceedings in Australia against Beyond Productions (the producer of MythBusters), alleging passing off in relation to the use of the name "Mythbusters".^[11] Knight asserted that he had previously put together a team of "Mythbusters" and had used the name continuously since 1988 in relation to pursuing myths, ghosts, monsters, goblins and other such mysteries in an offbeat manner all around the world. Knight authored a series of self-published children's books under the banner "Mythbusters" in 1991, 1993, and 1996.^{[12] [13]} In February 2007, the Federal Court of Australia dismissed Knight's claims against Beyond (Knight v Beyond Properties Pty Ltd [2007] FCA 70).

Popularity and influence

Jamie and Adam as keynote speakers at Symantec Vision 08

Hyneman and Savage occasionally appear at colleges around the United States to talk about what it's like to be a MythBuster; the show consists of an interview and discussion to give the audience the opportunity to ask the MythBusters questions. To date they've done about 30 appearances, both collegiate and corporate, and are always well received, though the technical colleges tend to be the most enthusiastic.^[19][20] They've spoken at WPI, RPI, Boise State, Georgia Tech, Michigan Tech, University of California, Santa Barbara,Northern Michigan University, MIT, The University of Akron, the University Of Maine, the University of Florida, the IBM Almaden Research Center, UNM, and many others.

Adam Savage has written a primer on Moldmaking for MAKE magazine, and was a featured guest at the 2008 Maker Faire, Held in San Mateo.

Kari Byron was interviewed on The Late Show, on January 16, 2006.^[21] In 2006, Kari did a photo-shoot for FHM magazine, in which she demonstrated simple home chemistry experiments (such as the Mentos and Diet-Coke reaction) while wearing a red bra and lab coat.

People involved in survival stories reported in local newscasts have sometimes mentioned previous viewings of MythBusters as an influence to their actions. Twenty-three year old Theresa Booth of St. Martin, Minnesota credits a MythBusters episode for her and her infant child's survival. On April 3, 2007 she skidded off the road into a drainage ditch which had filled with flood water from the Sauk River. In a local newscast, she is described as opening the car door as soon as it entered the water, and credits her watching of the show (specifically, the episode of the Underwater Car myth) for her knowledge of how to survive the accident.^[22] On October 19, 2007 in Sydney, Australia, a teenager named Julian Shaw pulled a fainted middle-aged man off the railway tracks near a train station to safety below the platform. He pulled back as the train passed, citing that the "Train Suction" episode affected his response.^[23]

On the May 1st, 2008 episode of CSI, "The Theory of Everything", Jamie and Adam appeared in a cameo as observers taking notes during a test to determine whether a taser bolt can set someone on fire under various circumstances.

International broadcasts

MythBusters is broadcast in several countries, primarily on each country's edition of the Discovery Channel. In Australia the program is also broadcast on SBS. In some countries, the English speech is either subtitled in the relevant language and the United States customary units, still used throughout, are converted to metric, or the narrator is dubbed, or the whole show is voice-overed. Excerpts of the show are also shown as part of the Beyond Television-produced Beyond Tomorrow

See also

• List of MythBusters episodes
• Brainiac: Science Abuse, a British program which also tests popular myths, but with more emphasis on entertainment rather than science.
• Hollywood Science, a show predating MythBusters with a similar aim that was produced by the Open University for the BBC and was presented by actor Robert Llewellyn and scientist Jonathan Hare.
• Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, another program based on scientific skepticism, but with a larger focus on popular controversy.
• Smash Lab
• Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference Pages

References

External links

• Official Site
• Mythbusters wiki
• Behind the Story: Buster
• Interview on Slashdot
• An interview on PoopReport
• Adam Savage interviewed on the Penn Jillette Radio Show
• Interview on NPR
• Adam and Jamie explaining Moore's Law, energy efficiency, and the impact of shrinking transistors on computers

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