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Left to right: Grant, Jamie, Kari, Adam and Tory. They're what you call "experts."
"Who are the Myth Busters? Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman...between them, more than thirty years of special effects experience. They don't just tell the myths — they put them to the test!"
Gonzo pop culture meets off-beat science as Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman — two special effects guys with nearly thirty years of experience between them — take on urban legends, ancient myths and tall tales of all kinds to debunk (or confirm!) them.
With the help of their crack team of smart-ass builders (Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara, and formerly Scottie Chapman), as well as crack crash-test dummy Buster, Adam and Jamie meticulously take apart popular myths ranging from the legend of Archimedes' solar " Death Ray" to "free energy" to the most common Hollywood exaggerations ( exploding cars, the knockback from a bullet).
They render each myth down to its component elements, then apply a goofball scientific rigor to reproducing those elements. Jamie owns and continues to run the Special Effects studio M-5 Industries, where he has all the equipment you would possibly need to build any sort of contraption they need to. And whenever they come across something that is beyond their expertise, they call in favors from colleges and other specialists. Their reputation has gotten to the point that they can get to just about anyplace because they provide excellent PR (although in the first episode Jamie found trouble trying to attain a military grade JATO rocket).
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. It is affectionately called "replicate the myth, then duplicate the results" — 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 not totally stark raving bonkers 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 vaporized a cement truck).
Not every myth is busted, though — 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 every myth except one has some kernel of truth, despite if it may or may not be applicable to whether the myth is plausible.
The show has a geek-chic atmosphere that is almost irresistible. Part of the attraction is the Odd Couple pairing of class clown Adam and stolid Jamie, with their frequent jibes and competitions, and the kind of "intellectual Three Stooges" vibe that the build team emits. Also, it's the humor and wacky sense of fun with which they all go about their mission. They once built not one, not two, but three different machines designed to drop buttered toast on the floor. For Christmas 2006 they built a Rube Goldberg machine to celebrate the holiday. The fact that Scottie and Kari are two of the most attractive, genuinely intelligent women on TV doesn't hurt with the male (or lesbian / Bisexual...) viewership, either. Grant and Tory also have their fans. (This series is a shining example of Geeky Is Sexy.)
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, the team did a lot of contract model work for ILM). Because of that they carry across an image of being One Of Us; their reactions are much like regular people. Here are some examples of the dialogue.
The show was nominated for an Emmy in 2009 and is easily one of the most popular programs on the Discovery Channel.
Adam and Jamie originally gained minor celebrity when their robot Blendo was a competitor on Battle Bots, and Grant was also a known competitor.
See Also:
This show provides examples of:
- Abnormal Ammo (The staggering amount of strange stuff they've modified air cannons or rifles to fire, among others. See trope page for specific examples.)
- Absentee Actor: Jessi Combs
 is currently taking Kari's place during Kari's maternity leave.
- Are You Pondering What Im Pondering: Seemingly deliberately invoked by Adam: "I think so, Jamie, but it's gonna be hard to find four oak doors and 30 feet of greased chain!"
- Ascended Extra: Kari and Tory both had minor roles on the show before being hired as part of the build team. After pestering her way into an off-camera job, Kari's first appearance was having her butt scanned to make a model. Tory first appeared helping build the Archimedes Solar Death Ray and looking kind of panicked when Adam said they have about a day and a half to finish the build. Jess Nelson was a finalist in a viewer challenge to build a Death Ray and even though her team lost to another team, the production crew liked her enough to bring her in as a "Myth-tern."
- Asian And Nerdy: Arguably, Grant plays this one for his own (and the audience's) amusement. The guy builds robots on any excuse and used pi as his "prisoner number" in the jailhouse rope episode. As if that wasn't bad enough, when they were testing a lie detector machine, it was revealed he had thought about building a female robot. And he was later reduced to a stammering idiot when he met a high-tech bomb disposal robot.
- Grant's Asian And Nerdy vibe is intensified because his college degree is in electrical engineering.
- Awesome But Impractical: Rube Goldberg would be so damn proud. One in particular was opening a safe by cutting a small hole, filling it with water and dropping an explosive charge in it. Water doesn't compress so the power is distributed to the weak points of the safe, the door. The principle behind it is sound and works, but it took over 30 minutes to cut the hole and the stuff inside was charred from the cutting lance.
- Ax Crazy: Adam and Tory come dangerously close if not crossing over, although in about the most benign sense of the trope.
- Badass Bookworm: Jamie.
- Badass Mustache: Jamie again.
- Bad Bad Acting: Sometimes they don't try very hard to make the scripted myth-introduction scenes seem realistic, especially the build team. But it was averted when they wanted to test the Hypnosis Recall myth by plotting a tense altercation with some delivery boys. Adam and Jamie were in on the act and while the viewer could tell they were acting you could also see how Tory, Grant and Kari would fall for it.
- Bald Of Awesome: Jamie, Adam when he had his head shaved in the early episodes.
- Bamboo Technology: Merges with Steam Punk at times, they've had to test myths of plans for Civil War era rockets and even a steam powered machine gun. Invoked literally on the Mac Gyver special where they built a lightweight plane out of bamboo, garbage bags, duct tape and a cement mixer motor. While it did roll on the ground just fine, it plummeted straight down as it rolled off a cliff to attempt liftoff. And then there's the Hwacha!
- Beyond The Impossible: Give Adam and Jamie even the most mundane Urban Legends and they, without a doubt, will find some absolutely bizarre and complicated way to test them out. Usually, it involves explosives. Lots of explosives.
- Body Horror: Tory's Meatman: a fake skeleton with pork sewed onto it to serve as muscle and skin, with its abdomen filled with various organs and fake blood. It was used to test the myth that if a deep sea diver in an old-timey suit lost his air supply (and a safety valve failed to work), the resulting pressure difference would crush the diver's body into the helmet of the suit. The myth was confirmed; even the helmet began to buckle under the pressure, with bits of Meatman beginning to leak out.
- Brand X: Used to avoid having to pay out licensing fees and to preserve the impartiality of the show. Ruthlessly Lampshaded constantly.
Adam: I don't know about you, but I think Mythbusters Cola sounds delicious.
Grant: I do not always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Mythbusters.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Adam, a lot.
- Bullet Time: They use high speed cameras that can record up to about 2000 frames per second. Used for a lot of experiments just so they can see what actually happened. Adam's favorite was mentioned as being a hot water heater rocketing out of a makeshift house. Sometimes they just do it for fun, like a sobering myth where Adam got slapped in the face by Jamie pretty hard. The bullet time footage of a rocket sled vaporizing a car is likely the most popular footage ever, and likely paved the way for the show Time Warp, which revolves around nothing but Bullet Time. Then Adam's drunken treadmill running (and falling... and getting back on, only to fall even more violently) became a clip that he started showing off while doing lectures well before the show aired, because it just looked so funny.
- Bulletproof Fashion Plate: Jamie, though Adam tries to trash his white shirt. And you do not try to take his hat.
- Butt Monkey: Poor Buster. Adam and Tory get their own bruises, usually their own fault though.
Adam: This is the show. It's, like, 4 minutes of science, and then 10 minutes of me hurting myself.
- Catch Phrase: Several, most of which are recycled in the opening credits.
- "Well, there's your problem!" (Usually in response to a fully intended destruction of a vehicle., or when looking for parts or pieces for a build, and finding a car with no engine. Also applied to many other situations, such as when a fingerprint lock proved embarassingly easy to fool.)
- "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing." Also referred to as the "Mythbusters Mantra".
- "When in doubt, C4."
- "Jamie wants Big Boom."
- "PHYSICS!"
- "When in doubt, lubricate!"
- "Failure is always an option on Mythbusters."
- "This is why we can't have nice things." (Grant, usually right before something is destroyed.)
- *sniffs the air* "Aah, it's a beautiful day for science."
- "Will our insurance cover this?" (Usually right before they destroy an item that was hard to get, or are about to attempt something that is pretty questionable.)
- "For Science!"
- Then there's Adam's own personal zinger, "I reject your reality and substitute my own", which he wears on his T-shirt in many later episodes.
- Which is actually a line from the 1984 movie Dungeonmaster (aka Ragewar).
- "X went away." Often used by Jamie as a euphemism for "X was completely destroyed by an explosion."
- Kari thinks all these catchphrases are AMAZING!
- Censor Steam: Subverted in this video. A last second move of the head blocks the actual decapitation then it shows the decapitation uncensored on the high speed.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The first season had accredited folklorist Heather Joseph-Witham give some background information and sociology regarding the current myth they were testing. She was phased out because she wasn't adding anything that couldn't have been explained by either the narrator or the hosts, and her footage anyway was shot much like an interview, she didn't interact with Adam and Jamie.
- Cluster F Bomb: Largely averted, although Adam tended to get bleeped roughly once an episode in the first few seasons when a lot more of the work on the myths was being shown on-screen. Also, there are the rare times when something goes seriously awry with a test or a build, such as Adam's profanity-laced call to the insurance company after being told he couldn't be a stunt double in a Hollywood myths episode, and Grant's reactions to his (repeatedly) failed "dental floss jail door cutter" machine. Adam Lampshaded this himself after yet another Amusing Injury:
Adam: Holy bleeping bleepety bleep!
- Comedic Sociopathy: Whenever someone (usually Adam or Tory) has to get injured in the name of an experiment, the other team members will generally express glee about it, especially if they get to inflict the pain.
Scotty: Let's egg him on until he hurts himself. That's always fun.
- Cool But Inefficient: A lot of construction myths turn out to be this. The claim made for the substance is true on a micro level, but is too flawed to use in the large-scale way the myth states. Examples:
- Using ping-pong balls to raise a sunken ship (true, but you need about a million of them);
- Using balloons to lift a person (ditto);
- Building ships from "pykrete", a mixture of ice and wood chips (the substance performed surprisingly well, but a small boat quickly started shedding).
- The original concept was for making large aircraft carriers for use in the North Atlantic, and they would have been solid blocks of Pykrete, not the thin shell boat that the Mythbusters made.
- Cool Shades: Jamie's distinctive welding goggle-like sunglasses.
- Cow Tools: M-5 certainly qualifies, there is this wall that spans almost one whole wall of the main building(at least 75 feet) with shelves and cubbies to hold all sorts of things. Apparently Jamie doesn't like to throw anything away and the random trinkets do come in handy.
- Crazy Enough To Work: Every so often, they try something that they know can't possibly work, and yet does. Perhaps most famously, Kari managed to fool a motion detector by holding a simple bedsheet up in front of her.
- Using an emergency life raft as a parachute.
- Crazy Prepared: Jamie again, he keeps lard on hand for any situation.
Jamie: You gotta collect those skills to be ready for anything.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Dedicating an episode to not just busting moon landing hoax Conspiracy Theories, but rhetorically stomping them flat, setting them on fire, and pissing on the ashes. They also evaporated a car. Not with explosives, mind; that's what they did to that poor cement truck. No, this vehicular vaporization was caused by a hunk of metal crashing into the car at transonic speeds. Awesome in a classical sense. As mentioned above, "the cement truck went away..."
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: When testing a myth on an ancient electrical battery (possibly used for worship), the build team found it had a zap, but not a lot. So they created their own Ark of the Covenant, complete with the seraphim having Jamie glasses and mustache, and hooked it up to an electrical fence transformer. They then invited Adam (believing it to be the ancient batteries) to try it out. Adam was nearly blown across the room. Kari kept a straight face and asked, "Did you feel God?" They later apologized and gave him a hug, but it was probably the meanest prank they ever pulled. Adam himself was not amused.
- Deadpan Snarker: Adam tries to be this, but usually can't keep a straight enough face to fully Invoke the trope. When Jamie does it, on the other hand, he puts the "deadpan" in "Deadpan Snarker".
- Did Not Do The Research: Occasionally, the experiments fail to correctly identify what's being tested, resulting in totally incorrect conclusions; for example, testing Scope Snipe with a modern scope rather than a period one, concluding that a rifle barrel won't peel open based on testing of new barrels when the phenomonen only occurs with flawed or old ones, and concluding that since a tiny boat produces no measureable suction when sinking, neither would a 4.6 million cubic foot ocean liner.
- Fortunately, the Mythbusters are Genre Savvy enough to anticipate this, and are always welcome to revisits of their older experiments, with the new information (or complaints) their fans give them; some results have actually been overturned, as a result.
- Dont Try This At Home: Before every episode is a little video with Jamie and Adam stating this. The build team often makes a second video announcement midway through the show. It's also usually stated throughout the show.
- Double Entendre: Jamie, Adam, and the Build Team made a few from time to time, but the narrator absolutely loves making them.
Kari: (attempting to describe Viagra which was used for one myth) I'm not sure if I can name this one if there should happen to be little kids watching... Um, "Daddy's little helper"?... "Mommy's little helper"?
- Dream Team: Occasionally all five Myth Busters will come together to work on a single myth like "Compact Compact", "Border Slingshot" and recently "Seesaw Saga".
- Duct Tape For Everything: In one episode, they built a working cannon and a seaworthy boat entirely out of duct tape, and also lifted a car with it. They have even stated they could fill an entire season with duct tape experiments.
- Edited For Syndication: They also like to play the stuff that got cut in an end of season wrap up. Or, as stated before commercial breaks, the cut material winds up on the website.
- In one first-season episode, most of the "Octopus Pregnancy" segment (including all the testing) was chopped out of the US release.
- Education Through Pyrotechnics
- Edutainment Show
- Epic Fail: This is usually the basis for most myths. Sometimes it actually happens while testing myths.
- Every Car Is A Pinto: Subverted
- Executive Meddling: Averted. The Discovery Channel executives give the Mythbusters a lot of creative freedom and basically let them call the shots. The only times they step in to block a test is really when they feel that the test might offend their sponsors or provoke legal action. The channel's insurance agents have also squashed or put serious restrictions on a lot of tests due to safety concerns for the crew. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say concerns for the hosts. They once vetoed Adam doing a stunt, but they were fine with Tory doing it.
- Expansion Pack Past: Jamie; the man has lived an interesting life. May be more of a Multiple Choice Past depending on how much Adam is making a joke of it at any given time.
Jamie: Did I ever tell you that I worked as a concrete inspector for several months up in Seattle?
Adam: Was this before or after you were the big animal veterinarian for the circus?
Jamie: No, I never did that. You must be mistaken.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Sort of. When the series started, Adam had a goatee and short buzz cut (see the pic above) and sometimes was almost completely shaved (after the Goldfinger myth which required him to shave his entire body and the Exploding Cellphone myth which singed off his eyebrow and a chunk of his hair). Now, he has medium-length hair and almost a full beard.
- You can tell how much post-production work and myth-testing time goes into the series just by looking at Kari: she'll sometimes have a different haircut or hair color during the expository segments(the ones where they establish the myth and brainstorm methods to tackle it), and sometimes even during the actual testing. This troper has actually seen episodes in which Kari actually has THREE different hair colors(one in the expo sequences and two during testing) while tackling the same myth. Any person who cares for his/her hair knows the time that must be spent between dying sessions to not damage it, so this is an easy way to identify a myth that took a LONG time to test.
- Failsafe Failure: Played straight, usually equipment built by the Mythbusters themselves. The radio-controlled real cars are supposed to apply brakes when they get out of radio range, for instance. And in the "Elevator of Death" test, as Adam put it: "Anticlimactically enough I believe I've disabled the entire mechanism by removing this simple pin." Also Subverted, as more than one "Busted" verdict has come about due to the presence of failsafes on equipment such as washing machines and elevators, and the sometimes absurd measures needed to defeat them in order to replicate the myth's results. In testing the hot water heater myth, they proved that if both safety devices are removed or plugged, the heater can become a rocket and will potentially demolish anything in its flight path... which is why there are two safety devices in the first place. It's worth mentioning that the failure of both was considered entirely plausible. And again in Exploding Bumper. They heated a car bumper to see if they could make it explode from the pressure. Instead it vented out through a tiny hole. Without missing a beat Adam said "I'll bet that's supposed to be there."
- Fetish Fuel: Especially of the Geeky Turn On variety.
- Five Man Band: Considering it is a pseudo-reality show you know it was mostly intentional.
- The Hero — Jamie. He owns M-5 and is the most tech savvy of the team, but he brought on Adam considering himself to be too dull.
- The Lancer — 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 Big Guy — Tory. Reasonably athletic, he is the one who usually tests the more physically challenging myths.
- The Smart Guy — First Scottie, then Grant
- The Chick — Kari. The artist of the team, she usually does any sculpting, casting, and the like needed for a myth — though she's very intelligent and not afraid to get physical herself.
- Sixth Ranger — Jessi. She's filling in for Kari, but is more parts Gearhead over Wrench Wench.
- Guest Star Party Member — 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 exper 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, but because his narration recorded after the fact they tend to ignore it, often to their own peril.
- For Science: Often invoked by Adam, usually with a tone and circumstances that put the DANGEROUS into Dangerously Genre Savvy.
- Fun Personified: Adam is as close to a Real Life example as you'll ever get.
- Fun T Shirt: Adam has plenty of them, often with quotes from the show.
- "<Mythbuster>Am I missing an eyebrow?</Mythbuster>" has featured for years.
- Adam's a Target shopper, as one of his more frequently-appearing shirts "I do my own stunts" is a fixture at that store.
- Genre Blindness: None of the cast, but in the "Jaws" episode, one of Adam's contacts from the special effects world was able to get him three of the yellow plastic barrels that were were actually used in the film, with the admonishment that they weren't to be damaged. This was remarked upon by Tory.
Adam: The only things we can't do are burn 'em, blow 'em up, or lose 'em.
Tory: Has he watched the show?
- Genre Savvy: Adam has repeatedly mentioned that if nothing goes wrong in the small-scale tests, or the setup for the final test, there will be some kind of catastrophic failure at the end. He's rarely wrong. Also proven correct in the "Rocket Car Revisited" segment of the Supersized Myths Special, where almost every preparation step went on flawlessly only to have the entire car explode the instant the rocket was ignited as it hit the launching ramp.
- Glasses Pull: Tory does one of these (complete with a corny Grissom One Liner) after setting up a myth from an episode of CSI: Miami. Sadly, there's no accompanying YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
- Another episode had Tory do this when he chooses to do the "CSI Method" of making homemade diamonds. And there is a YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
- Gonna Need More Trope: Sometimes they have to add more explosive components or other mundane things like rope, or distance, or weight, etc.
- Groin Attack: Tory gets clocked by a playful goat during the "Fainting Goat" segment of the "Viral Hour" episode. He also got hit by a rock attached to a kite's tail during the Ben Franklin myth. Ironically, this happened immediately after he called it the "kite of death".
- During the Superhero Special, he hit himself down there with a ballistics gel (and something else, I forget what) fist.
- Growing The Beard: The first season had a significantly slower pace than later seasons, one point being that the show would stop to have Heather Joseph-Witham give elaborate and unnecessary information regarding the myth. As well, a higher pecentage of the show focused on Jaime and Adam's efforts to acquire the parts needed and their interactions with the bemused sellers (ie Jaime trying to get the JATO rocket). Evidently the charm of the show was still there, but the second season started featuring the Build Team and had a greater focus on the actual experimentation and their efforts to recreate the myth.
- Hard Work Montage: Except for when the editors are having fun, the work is usually shown, in either a series of jump cuts (most often used with Grant building a robot) or an extended time lapse for something that takes longer then people think it should, or just the size (like putting together the paper used for the 8 folds myth).
- Helium Speech: Adam does this any time helium is used on the show. Also inverted when Adam inhaled sulphur hexafluoride to speak with a demon-like heavy voice
- HSQ: Whenever you can get one of these guys to go "Holy Shit!" you know you got something big. Among them is the Cement Truck Explosion, the near supersonic Rocket Sled and the terminal velocity See Saw Catapult.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel: MEATMAN! And anything involving torture. The standout being the Bamboo Torture Myth. Yikes. The high-speed camera also counts, particularly when showing anything biological. And there are two words guaranteed to make long-time fans cringe: "Chicken Hand".
- Hot Shounen Mom: Kari now qualifies, having given birth to her first child, daughter Stella Ruby Urich.
- Hurricane Of Puns: The narrator attempts to turn every single episode into one of these during his expositions.
- Hulk Speak: Repeat after me, "Jamie wants big boom."
- Humiliation Conga: Usually happens whenever a myth just implodes on the guys.
Adam (Dangling upside-down, caught in a mesh net from the giant "helium raft"): This wins as the strangest position I've ever been in...on this show.
Kari: Don't you love how he qualifies it with "on this show"?
- I Watch It For The Science
- Idiosyncratic Wipes
- Idiot Ball: Even they admitted it. They test fired a cannon designed to shoot out a 25 pound grappling hook... without anchoring it down. Which law of physics is it again...
Kari: The Newton's Laws! We forgot the Newton's Laws!
Narrator: You mean the one where for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?
Tory: We do a lot of dangerous stunts on this show...but that was the closest I came to feel that I was in actual danger.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Somewhat parodied. Jamie's standard outfit on the show is khaki pants, a white button-up shirt that almost never gets dirty, and a black beret. In one episode it was so windy Jamie almost lost the beret and Adam realized that it hasn't ever happened before.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: There are various experts they bring in who are certainly skilled with their guns, but they have proven that some skills like hitting a coin out of the air isn't a "first shot" kind of thing.
- And then on the "Davy Crockett split bullet" myth, Tory makes the shot on their last attempt before letting the expert get a crack at it.
- Incendiary Exponent: All. The. Time. In one episode, Adam mentions the only thing that separates him and Jamie from a couple of teenage pyromaniacs is that Jamie and Adam use protective glass.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: After successfully making a lead balloon, Jamie suggests that next time they should take a crack at a lead zeppelin. These are also staples of Robert Lee's episode narrations.
- Interactive Narrator: Usually scrupulously averted, but during the "Car Cling" myth, Adam takes a moment to nitpick a comment the viewer just heard the narrator make, then ends on a point where the narrator promptly picks up again.
- Internet Backdraft: Frequently mentioned by Adam in response to some of the more controversial myths or busts, and has led directly to a few re-tests or Viewers' Specials tests. The Mythbusters joked that the backdraft from their busting of Carlos Hathcock's legendary scope shot meant that not only did they piss off a lot of viewers and fans, but trained snipers as well (who you really, really, really don't want angry at you). They later revisited the myth and vindicated Hathcock by in fact proving that his scope shot was possible.
Adam: Well, that ought to silence most of our detractors on this one... but I expect we'll still get some complaints. Jamie: Yeah, like you didn't use a cannon... or something.
- Irony: After Adam and Jamie blow up yet another car in classic Hollywood style, the Narrator calmly states, "Perhaps Adam and Jamie should consider work as a film special effects crew."
- It Makes Sense In Context: Adam drove back to M-5 with a small airplane fuselage in the back of his truck. He said on the road he got the strangest looks until they saw who was driving the truck. He has a similar story with a load of pig carcasses in the back of his truck. One episode was dedicated to showing where Adam and Jamie get all of their random parts.
Adam: I'm sitting in a bunker looking out at a crash test dummy dressed as a Chinese Astronomer sitting on 40 pounds of gunpowder... sorry, I just had one of those "mythbuster" moments.
- It Tastes Like Feet: When trying to make his breath rank in order to test out a vodka mouthwash, Adam eats what he calls "stinky foot cheese".
- Keet: Adam, full stop
- Jonas Quinn: A new Build Team member, Jesse Combs, is filling in for Kari while she is on maternity leave.
- The Klutz: If Adam isn't hurting himself, odds are Tory is. And if it's not Tory, it's Grant. Kari usually manages to stay safe. Relatively safe, given her career choice.
- Kon Tiki Plot: The basis of many myths. Escape from Alcatraz in a rubber life raft? Check! Lawnchair balloonist? Check! Build and sail a boat out of ice and newspaper? Check! Ming Dynasty astronaut going up in a rocket chair? Um, uncheck. Poor Buster...
- Large Ham: Everyone except Jamie. Adam will frequently get into the character of myths. Tory and Grant are known to do it too, to the chagrin of Kari, but she's been known to indulge a time or two herself.
- Laser Guided Karma: In a myth involving hammers, Tory hit a wooden board in the exact same spot twice, missing the nail. Grant then asked him why he didn't put the nail there. The very next try, the hammer flew out of Tory's grip and skipped across the ground, passing the front of Grant's steel-toed boot and hitting him in the side of the foot. Hilarity ensued.
- Macross Missile Massacre / Rain Of Arrows: The Hwacha: a rig that fired 200 rocket-powered explosive tipped arrows within 5 seconds of each other. The arrows actually missed the styrofoam army the team had set up but that was due to poor aiming, not effectiveness.
- Mad Bomber: All five of them. Just because they do it safely and legally doesn't make the trope any less applicable.
- Mad Scientist: Just about everybody on the show.
Adam: I wouldn't say Jamie's an evil genius... I'm not sure he's evil, and I'm not sure he's a genius, but, uh... *laughs*
- Mascot: Buster, the constantly abused and rebuilt crash test dummy.
- MacGyvering: Many, if not most of the contraptions devised, not to mention the episode dedicated to MacGyver, who is frequently called "The Patron Saint of Mythbusters."
- Made Of Explodium: Subverted in nearly every episode, as just about every myth involving an explosion usually results in the items said to be explosive stubbornly refusing to detonate. Even a car fuel tank shot with incendiary rounds or left to burn for over 10 minutes. Played straight on quite a few occasions as well, like the Thermite/Ice myth, which exploded on the first try. Hilariously done straight with the Hindenburg scale tests. Adam wanted to see how fast the material would burn with and without hydrogen by setting fire to the material stretched over a box filled with the gas. Upon adding the fire to it, the fabric exploded off the box like a gunshot. Adam was noticeably shaken. The model was even set ablaze while they were merely building it, prompting the amused Adam to observe "These things are always catching on fire!"
- Man Hug: Averted by Adam, because he's that manly.
Adam: If I were a different kind of person I'd hug you right now. (pauses, then punches Jamie in the shoulder)
- McNinja
- Memetic Mutation (Usually due to becoming part of the opening sequence.)
- "I reject your reality, and substitute my own."
- "Am I missing an eyebrow?"
- "Quack, damn you."
- Million To One Chance: A few myths they said were reasonably plausible in theory, but to do it by accident or even on purpose requires the right alignment of stars. Those myths involve the sniper scope shot with modern scopes and one with a belt buckle with a testimonial from a local police officer.
- One of the best examples is the exploding bumper, where nothing they did could get the result of a bumper being launched explosively from a burning car, yet were able to prove it IS possible given JUST the right circumstances by finding a person who actually had her leg broke by this happening.
- Missing Episode: A lot of general footage and some mini-myths are left out of the show, many of which they promote on the show to see what was left out. One famous myth, though, was actually kept from airing at all because it was deemed a little too risque/immature. It involved the flatulence myths and testing if you can actually set your farts on fire. Confirmed, but most of the footage is of Adam spread eagle on a specialized chair holding a lighter near his crotch. Nobody really wants to see that.
- More Dakka: Frequently employed.
- Ms Fanservice: Kari Byron, though to their credit they don't overdo that angle. Of course, they hasn't stopped them from mentioning (and showing pictures from) her FHM photoshoot. The trope is parodied when the narrator mentions that one of the cast will have to get fitted for a bra. Cut to Tory's hairy chest, with a bra on it.
- Multiple Choice Past: Occasionally when Adam makes up tidbits regarding Jamie's prior jobs/personal history, Jamie himself will chime in with an alternate scenario.
- Mundane Utility: During a presentation, Adam expressed great interest in testing more "mundane" myths, like comparing consumer products to see which ones perform better or whether they perform up to the standards their manufacturers claim. However, it will never happen because the executives are afraid of losing their sponsors or getting sued. The closest they get is when a myth item won't work, and they compare that to a consumer product (such as keys, cellphone, or shoe to break a window underwater; none worked, but the store bought breaker worked every time.
- The Munchausen: Jamie.
- My Car Hates Me: Substitute R/C car, rocket, rig, Death Ray etc...then again, considering the number of these things that explode, crash or otherwise are broken, it'd hardly be surprising.
- Nausea Fuel: Played straight in-show. Adam is very prone to seasickness, and just about every episode that's had him on a boat has shown him throwing up. He even puked in the rig during the "killer whirlpool" episode. Grant has also gotten sick in a few episodes, thanks to the motion sickness test chair.
- Neologism: Adam sometimes makes up words when he finds there's no word to describe the ridiculous awesomeness of the moment.
Adam: Oh no! Oh, my God! Oh, criminy!
Narrator: "Criminy"? So shocked he makes up a new word.
- Nerd Glasses: Adam.
- Nice Hat: Jamie's distinctive beret really makes him stand out in a crowd. As Adam mentioned in a behind-the-scenes special, "I get noticed much more when I'm with Jamie. I might be the guy from that show, but he is the guy from that show." Adam's fedora-styled hat also qualifies.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Common, usually before the device is even completed. But they just soldier on whenever it happens. In a recent 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.
- Noodle Incident: During "Cheese Cannon", Kari states that they haven't used cheese as ammunition before. She then clarifies that she hasn't, and that she doesn't know whether either of the others has. Grant hasn't. But Tory has. And he doesn't care to talk about it.
- Not Compensating For Anything: Invoked by Grant as he brings out the hydraulic piston he just built...that's over 5 feet tall.
- Odd Couple: Jamie and Adam respect each other, work well together and have excellent chemistry, but they have both said that they aren't particularly good friends. You can kind of sense it with a few projects they had done.
- Pirates: Two entire episodes devoted to pirate myths.
- Pixellation
- Power Trio: The Build Team.
- The Power Of Rock: They've proven that "hardcore, to the bone death metal" makes plants grow better than silence, kind or mean words, or classical music.
- And then there's rocker Jamie Vendera breaking a glass with the power of his VOICE alone.
- Power Walk: Most episodes usually end this way, with Adam and Jamie and/or Kari, Grant, and Tory walking away from the smoldering aftermath of their main event myth.
- Pregnant Badass: Arguably, Kari. Handled myths tossed at her (within reason, of course) until she absolutely couldn't, expecting the baby any moment. The viewers were informed of this this because Grant and Tory were joking with her about her being ready to just have her baby, and Kari herself got in on the jokes, asking something around the line of "Did my water just break?" before taking her hiatus.
- Pretty In Mink: When testing out James Bond myths, Kari put on an evening gown with a fur wrap, just to get that classic Bond Girl look.
- Product Placement: Happening in the later seasons, thankfully during commercials and not in the show itself. It's still blatant because they aren't actors playing characters, they are themselves, so Tory trying to prove the superiority of his diesel VW just reeks of Money Dear Boy. Averted, depending on the myth involved, as no company wants their product to be the one shown to be a) defective, b) dangerous, c) shown to be either (a) or (b), or d) used in an embarrassing myth. Most notably soda, which is even stranger when you get to the Menthos/Diet Coke myth they still couldn't mention the brand on air, but everybody knows what it was anyway.
- Promotion To Opening Titles: The Build Team. They were promoted to full MythBuster status initially, then demoted back down to being the Build Team.
- Pungeon Master: Bloody near everyone.
- Put On A Bus: The Mythterns and Scottie left without much fanfare. Also the myth expert lady (Heather Joseph-Witham) from the first season (see Chuck Cunningham Syndrome above).
- Rated M For Manly: Guns, explosions, robots, redheads and manly mustaches galore!
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Possibly behind some of the fan complaints when the Mythbusters bust a commonly-believed myth. In addition, some myths that are busted on the show are actually true.
- Reality Show
- Recycled In SPACE: Testing whether or not cars explode when they fall off a cliff is pretty much Every Car Is A Pinto in a slightly different context.
- Refuge In Audacity: Seriously. These guys give Warhammer 40000 a run for its money.
- Ret Con: They are willing to re-examine older myths when the fans complain about something they supposedly got wrong when they originally tested them, if it can be proven they didn't adhere to the spirit of the myth, didn't use proper/enough equipment, or simply didn't go far enough (laughable, granted, but possible). So far about 60 percent of the retested myths have remained busted, while the others have been either outright confirmed (proving the Mythbusters got it wrong originally) or some footnote about a "plausible" verdict that comes from stretching the boundaries of the myth.
- The myth of the barrel of a rifle splitting like a banana peel if you stuck your finger in it; it was busted even with welding an iron spike into the barrel, but a revisit showed a sniper rifle fired with an alignment laser still in the barrel was enough for the split.)
- A myth involving the plausability of a Scope Snipe was retested using a Vietnam-vintage scope, since the most well-publicized occurrance of the feat was Carlos Hathcock's shot, which the sniper admitted was a fluke.
- 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, with the sunny weather of California, nothing happened other then some smoke. In the end, they set fire to the ship by tossing a jar of burning fuel at it.
- Robinson Goldberg Contraption: Building these is what they do on the rare occasions they don't blow stuff up.
- Robosexual: Grant, as much as they can milk it in a G-rated show.
- Robo Ship: Grant / bomb squad robot OTP!
- Rule Of Cool: Does the experiment really call for several hundred pounds of explosives packed in a cement truck? Not really, but damn if it isn't awesome.
Adam: (after being told that attaching rockets to a swing set was spectacular) Well, hopefully, that's our job; to attach rockets to everything.
- San Francisco: Jamie's workshop, M5 Industries, is located in San Francisco so the show takes advantages of locations around the bay area. Adam has joked that they are getting to know all of the fire stations within a fifty-mile radius. It's not that far off. The sad part? No visitors. Ever.
- Separated At Birth: Jamie is starting to bear an increasingly striking resemblance to Dr. Robotnik (see here◊), while Adam could pass for a spastic, motor-mouthed Gordon Freeman. Meanwhile, one troper and spouse have noted how much Grant and Flash Forward 2009 character Demetri resemble each other.
- Shirtless Scene: The entire male cast has gotten a handful of these over the show's run (Jamie in the tree cannon episode, for example).
- Shout Out: Many blatant references that are Lampshaded. Repeatedly.
- Shrouded In Myth: Jamie, at least according to Adam.
Adam: It's been said that this crater is not unlike the one left by Jamie when he first came to Earth.
- Siege Engines: the boys recreated a "hwacha" or multiple arrow launcher.
- They also made a trebuchet out of an old boom lift. It didn't work so good...
- Something Completely Different: A couple episodes are just padding, like the Clip Show highlighting Buster's long (and painful) career and him being rebuilt a la The Six Million Dollar Man. Other times they substitute one of the myths they do in an episode and do something different like having a contest between two teams on building a hovercraft using leaf blowers, and once Jamie and Adam decided to just do a holiday special Rube Goldberg contraption. The behind the scenes episode holds a special place, because it showed where the Mythbusters obtain a good portion of all their trinkets and doo-dads, as well as small peeks into the homes of the hosts; there isn't much difference between Jamie's home and one of the part warehouses.
- Sound Effect Bleep: Used for both covering swearing and hiding the name of ingredients to dangerous substances.
Kari: I add a half-ounce of *donkey noise* to a half-ounce of *rooster crow* slowly.
Narrator: And when you mix donkey with rooster, you're bound to get a violent reaction!
- Squick: Several myth tests involving animal parts and/or decomposing animals, both for the viewers and for the Mythbusters (especially Kari).
- Start My Own: Adam and Jamie try to start their own Youtube fad during the Diet Coke and Mentos myth. They fail, as none of their attempts are feasible and/or safe to do with stuff lying around the home. Adam attempts to use a smoke bomb of Jamie's design to get revenge on Kari for her Baghdad Batteries stunt. He fails miserably, and winds up being chased off with a fire extinguisher.
- Stock Footage: They usually rely on custom-made animation to demonstrate myths that came from television shows and movies, and they still do so regularly. But either due to the budget or their reputation, they are increasingly being allowed to use the actual television and film clips in the show.
- The Stoic: Jamie, with Stoic Spectacles for good measure.
- Stuff Blowing Up: And how. Some have joked that their methodology comes down to, "Let's try it again with 2 tons of TNT." Also, see Rule Of Cool.
Jamie: That's what we do here on Mythbusters! We blow shit up!
Tory: It's Mythbusters. We haven't had an explosion yet. So...
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Jessi Combs is a thin blonde, has some tattoos, is proficient in Welding and Vehicle Mechanics, and even copied Scottie's shipping-container-into-ramp trick that she did for the 2nd attempt at the JATO Rocket Car myth. So what happened, the producers tried to get Scottie back for Kari's maternity leave, and when that didn't work out, they hired the next best thing? Not that Jessi is doing a bad job on the show or anything.
- This troper vaguely recalls reading on Scottie's Myspace blog that she and the show didn't part company all that kindly. Come to think of it, I recall reading the same thing about one of the Mythterns...
- The Jimmy Hart Version: In an episode involving whether or not a car will always explode after it drives off a cliff, the Explosive finale included a song very reminiscent of, but legally distinct from, Novermber Rain.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Their motto: "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
- They Bust Myths: Adam and Jamie.
- This Is Sparta: Regarding a bullet-dumping robot:
Adam: This! Is! SPARKY!
- Tim Taylor Technology: Let's see...how about the time Jamie built a "Microwave of Death" by combining the magnetrons from six different microwaves? Or the time they made a car fly using high pressure water...Jamie turned it up and up until he reached the limit of what the pumping substation could supply. Grant's superhuman sword-swinging machine, or his punching robot.
- Truth In Television: The underlying point of the show.
- Two Lines No Waiting: Usually the show intercuts between two (or more) myths, one worked on by Adam and Jamie, the other worked on by The Build Team with some minor crossovers here and there. Occasionally they'll team up and tackle one epic myth together.
- Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny: Jamie and Adam had an "Ultimate Mythbuster" contest to see who was the better Mythbuster. In testing to see how much pain they could endure, they took turns shooting at each other with paintball guns. Jamie hit Adam in the bellybutton, twice. Adam hit Jamie in the groin, twice. Though he was wearing a cup.
- The Unfunny: Jamie.
- Up To Eleven: In the episode where they bust the myth that paper cannot be folded more than seven times, they fold it literally to eleven.
- Urban Legends: Several have been tested.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Adam goes on the ocean to test myths an awful lot for someone subject to violent seasickness. Also, he "volunteered" to get himself bitten by Daddy Long-legs spiders despite his arachnophobia. Interestingly, the next time Adam was confronted with spiders (tarantulas this time!) he said he'd gotten over his phobia of them since the Daddy Long-legs myth. Also, in another episode, Kari forces Grant to sit blindfolded with his feet in a bucket with live fish,
despite because of his intense fear of them (they were testing driving performance under stress). Don't forget the Self-Hypnosis myth where Adam was forced to put his hand in a box of bees twice to see if self-hypnosis could cure him from his fear of bees! Or acrophobe Jamie spending most of the Hammer Drop myth on top of a crane, or jumping off a building in "Dumpster Dive".
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs: See Expansion Pack Past above.
- Wrench Wench: Kari and Scottie, in a real-world incarnation. While Kari is on maternity leave, Jessi Combs will be working with Grant and Tory. From her bio, it looks like she qualifies for this trope as well.
- X Meets Y: Adam himself describes the show as "Jackass meets Mr. Wizard"
- About the "black powder line to the powder keg" explosion myth, Adam described "I like to live my life part as a cartoon character, part as an action hero, and this explosion satisfied both aspects of my personality."
... Am I missing an eyebrow?
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