Trivia / Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?

• Creator's Favorite: Jory and Jon have both said that their favorite microwave is Jackie. Before Jackie, Jory's favorite was Lacey.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Jory's favorite experiments are #44 (Dynamite), #97 (Pencil) and #164 (Flash paper).
  • Jon's is #9 (Toothpaste).
• Dear Negative Reader: Happened twice when Jory and Jon catered to fan requests. When the same base complained, the creators told them it was their own fault each time.
  • The first was Episode #62 where the guys responded to the constant "Microwave a microwave" demands by using Sandra to microwave Diane's remains. This experiment killed Sandra, and to make matters worse, they didn't have a backup microwave at the time of the episode’s filming.
  • The second and more blatant was Episode #189, made in response to fans complaining that their videos were overly long and had too much buildup to the microwaving segment. In response to the negative feedback, the guys pointed out the obvious: viewers can just skip to the microwaving at any time.
• Descended Creator: Series creator and cameraman Jon Paula hosted six episodes, and was the on-screen sidekick for four. In half of these episodes, he killed the microwave (Tracy and Cindy as the host although the latter was zombified; Zelda, Esmeralda and Gina as the sidekick).
• Meaningful Release Date: The peanut butter experiment was to be done in Season 3. The guys delayed it to Season 6 and posted its episode one day after the expiration date of June 4, 2009.
• The Other Darrin: Before there was Riley, Ryan, Zach, and Ezra were the sidekicks, albeit played a much smaller role in the episodes than Riley would. Ryan would return for the second airbag episode as the fourth guy and again for the propane tank episode.
• Referenced by...: The airbag episode inspired a background story in the novel Vasquez Private Eye, where a character was accused of murdering their father by microwaving an airbag.
• Schedule Slip: Happened after Sandra broke in Experiment #62. Filming was delayed by one month until the guys were able to acquire Helga.
• Throw It In!: The Don't Try This at Home warnings had one such instance. After recording one, Jory, Riley and Jon broke into the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The three all decided to incorporate that into one of their warnings.
• Uncredited Role: Sidekicks weren't credited until Season 5 when Riley joined the show. Ezra was credited as a guest commentator on the Season 2 finale.
• Unfinished Episode: Back in Season 1, experiments involving Styrofoam (a block first, and two handfills of packing peanuts second) were filmed. The episodes didn't make it to post because they both turned out to be boring.
• What Could Have Been:
  • On a few occasions, a microwave was discovered to be unusable before the guys had a chance to conduct an experiment.
    • Bubble Gum was originally done with Helga... but it was discovered during filming that Helga actually broke from the "Fireworks" experiment.^note The footage of this is in the stinger of the episode.
    • Jory was ready to use Susan for the Hannah Montana Pen, but he didn't realize that the Xbox 360 killed her until he pushed her buttons.
    • A microwave named Olga - the long-lost sister of Helga mentioned in season three - was meant to be used in Season 9, but was scrapped at the last moment when Jon discovered that her light was broken.
    • Esmeralda died while the guys were introducing the Flip Camera experiment.
    • The guys thought Ivanka died from the Santa Claus experiment, but she was up and running when they were preparing to microwave the Stress Ball. They even tested her out, apparently with a CD. Just before the guys could actually start the Stress Ball experiment, she stopped working.
  • Jory was originally going to microwave 16 CDs instead of 15^note As the intro-filmed-prior-to-the-"Microwave"-experiment shows., but Jory used one to see if Sandra still worked after microwaving Diane (she didn't).
  • Jory attempted to give Zelda the name Rose before being corrected by Jon, not knowing that her donor had already given her a name.
  • The first three videos where Jory and Jon open up the donations they got reveal several experiment options that never came to be.^note The season 8 one onwards have them only showing the ones they decided to use for experiments; hell, they didn't even do one for season 10.
  • Background info reveals that the Orange experiment was going to have a cameo from The Annoying Orange, but that fell through.