# Anyone else see Smash Lab on Discovery Channel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976 "2008-01-18T04:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/21 "2008-01-18T17:18:40Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] The chick on Smash Lab apparently has a mechanical engineering degree and worked for Raytheon. [/QUOTE] Right, and this makes her a _scientist_? :rolleyes: But all will be forgiven if she has drinks with me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/22 "2008-01-18T17:18:50Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] I dunno but all the ones in the gym were wearing short shorts and tight shirts. The celebrity doesn’t do anything for me, the blowing stuff up does though. [/QUOTE] Only blowing stuff up while wearing tight t shirts gets to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/23 "2008-01-18T17:27:40Z")
I watched the pilot back during Sneak Peek Week, and was underwhelmed. We stopped paying attention after a very short period of time, and eventually switched to a rerun of something else. My biggest problem was the credibility thing. First, they started off by making a huge commercial for Rhino Liner. “With a name like Rhino Liner, you know it’s gotta be tough”. Seriously? Way to establish that you aren’t being paid off by the company, guys. Secondly, there was no indication at all of why the heck we should believe what these people are telling us. Early Mythbusters episodes started out with establishing Jamie and Adam’s background, and they explain why they are doing this and why it matters. No such thing on this mess of a program. I went on the show website to see if that would help, but their backgrounds were… underwhelming, especially when applied to the concept of the show, which is “blow things up”. Among the many shining highlights of the female’s career is listed “high school math teacher”. Wow, that’s great. My high school math teacher was dumb as a block, so that doesn’t really say much in your favor. They all seem to have degrees in mechanical engineering, but none of them were in fields that I would directly connect to being really well rooted in the science behind explosions. One designed appliances. Really, that is cool. However, unless you were making exploding toasters, I’m not following how that makes you qualified to do the science behind a crashing plane. I dunno. I am fully aware that Jamie and Adam don’t have specialty degrees in a lot of the things they do, but being special effects people did give them a pretty firm grounding in making things go fast, or how best to blow something up. And when it is out of their realm, they have no problem bringing in experts. Smash Lab is expecting us to see these people as the experts, though, and what’s more, trust them enough that if they said something was safer, we would accept that it was. I just don’t see that happening. Also, how they heck did they get such a sweet studio setup right off the bat, when Mythbusters are still working out of Jamie’s shop and another similar building nearby? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/24 "2008-01-18T17:35:23Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] IAlso, how they heck did they get such a sweet studio setup right off the bat, when Mythbusters are still working out of Jamie’s shop and another similar building nearby? [/QUOTE] Well, Jamie still runs M5 Industries, doing special effects for commercials and such, and since most of the stuff on Mythbusters could fall under “special effects,” why go anywhere else? There doesn’t do seem to be a problem fitting the TV crew in with the actual M5 workers, everything you need is already there, plus you know your way around and are comfortable. And when you have an hour to kill on the Mythbusters side, you can go work on the 7-Up commercial you have pending, and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/25 "2008-01-18T17:37:23Z")
[QUOTE=Ro Carter] Also, how they heck did they get such a sweet studio setup right off the bat, when Mythbusters are still working out of Jamie’s shop and another similar building nearby? [/QUOTE] Actually I consider that a mark _against_ them. There was a scene in this week’s show where one of the guys reaches into one of a dozen bright blue plastic bins for a part, and my reaction was, “Wow, brand new fake workshop stocked with what you need for this episode and nothing else.” M5 has a worked-in, real-world authenticity that Smash Lab’s studio can’t approach. _Mythbusters_ would be much worse in a purpose-built shiny (or worse, fake grungy) studio. It’s real the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/26 "2008-01-18T17:44:51Z")
One other thing… the whole show is basically about blowing shit up, but they have to hire an outsider to blow shit up. None of the hosts are actually qualified to do it. The four hosts remind me of Scooby Doo’s pals. ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/27 "2008-01-18T18:20:58Z")
[QUOTE=Troy McClure SF] Well, Jamie still runs M5 Industries, doing special effects for commercials and such, and since most of the stuff on Mythbusters could fall under “special effects,” why go anywhere else? There doesn’t do seem to be a problem fitting the TV crew in with the actual M5 workers, everything you need is already there, plus you know your way around and are comfortable. And when you have an hour to kill on the Mythbusters side, you can go work on the 7-Up commercial you have pending, and vice versa. [/QUOTE] I get that, and I totally agree with the the idea that being in a real functioning workshop is much better than what is essentially a set. I guess where I was intending to go with that is from looking back at the very first Mythbusters episodes. They had no staff, with Jamie and Adam doing almost all the footwork, including research. They were very concerned about money constraints. Basically, they started off small. These Smash Lab fools get a freaking airplane hanger filled with all sorts of custom thingies right off the bat. Someone’s gonna be out some serious cash if this show goes belly up as quickly as I think it will. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/28 "2008-01-18T18:26:22Z")
They all seemed to consult with their stylists before conducting experiments. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/29 "2008-01-18T18:56:44Z")
Well, I sure am glad I decided to skip this. Sounds excruciating. Thanks, y’all! P.S. _Blowin’ Shit Up_ will be on the TV schedule right after _Ow My Balls._ ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/30 "2008-01-18T19:49:45Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] And guys, you’re really showing your nerd pedigrees because even though Kari is good looking, she’s not that hot. I’ve already seen at least a dozen girls today that are better looking. It helps that I’m at a pretty large university, but still. [/QUOTE] I agree. Kari is only super hot to nerds because she hangs out with a bunch of Mythbuster dorks doing nerdy things. The Smash Lab girl looks like every hot girl who would never talk to a nerd in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/31 "2008-01-18T21:10:17Z")
I saw the sneak-preview episode in December. None of them impresses me as an expert, they don’t follow up their experiments well enough to get anything meaningful out of them, and a lot of the things the voiceover said were just plain wrong (the “hosts” didn’t have this problem mostly by virtue of not saying _anything_ meaningful). As for the hotness question: Purely in terms of physical appearance, the lady on Smash Lab is hot. If your mindswapped Kari and Deanne, then Kari-in-Deanne’s-body would still be hot. But as things stand now, Kari is definitely hotter. See, hotness is about more than physical appearance. Deanne is a hot chick who happens to know some science, whereas Kari is someone who knows science who happens to be a hot chick. It’s a question of priorities: The fact that Kari doesn’t prioritize her hotness makes her hotter. Someone like Deanne will wear a fancy, impractical designer outfit to go blow stuff up in the desert, while someone like Kari would wear a comfortable T-shirt. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/32 "2008-01-18T21:18:28Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Someone like Deanne will wear a fancy, impractical designer outfit to go blow stuff up in the desert, while someone like Kari would wear a comfortable T-shirt. [/QUOTE] Not always. Did you notice that on this week’s _Mythbusters_, when they were testing the James Bond myths, Kari wore a slinky sliver evening gown out on the firing range. With her army boots! The babe is hot! ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/33 "2008-01-18T21:54:09Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Deanne is a hot chick who happens to know some science, whereas Kari is someone who knows science who happens to be a hot chick. [/QUOTE] I haven’t seen Smash Lab, so I can’t comment on Deanne. You’re defining Deanne as hot with a side of science and Kari as the reverse? That can’t be right since Kari’s background is in art and doesn’t really do any science on the show. I totally agree about hotness not just being about looks though. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/34 "2008-01-18T22:54:28Z")
[QUOTE=commasense] Not always. Did you notice that on this week’s _Mythbusters_, when they were testing the James Bond myths, Kari wore a slinky sliver evening gown out on the firing range. With her army boots! The babe is hot! [/QUOTE] Yes! The boots!!! Totally summed her up. HAAWWTT. And did you happen to notice the little cut shot where one of them says, “since we are going to blowing stuff up, let’s get out of the flammable suits (or something)” and the crew begin taking off the Bond suits. Kari _starts to hike her dress up_ and the camera cuts. Sweet Og I love my imagination! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/35 "2008-01-18T23:39:04Z")
My take on _Smash Lab:_ boring, repetitious, and pretentious. The idea of testing aerated concrete as a potential crash barrier is actually sort of neat. Even if some expert has already investigated it and discarded the notion so what? The average person hasn’t seen _why_ it’s not going to work. But they could have condensed everything into 30 minutes or less rather than drawing it out over an hour. Geez, can you drag this out just a little more? I’m not asleep yet. I don’t judge “hotness” of women, but my husband thought the lady host was “bitchy”. Of course, my husband is married to a HAWT woman who flies airplanes which is perhaps a hard standard to meet. A lot of it struck my as overly staged, like the “workroom” in the hangar. _Mythbusters_ actually looks like a workshop that gets used rather than laid out by a bunch of stagehands. Yeah, blowing stuff up and smashing things is cool. But I’m not impressed by the wide-screen presentation BS. The chalk board in _Mythbusters_ is much more fun. You don’t need high tech to do real science, and high tech won’t make BS into real science. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/36 "2008-01-19T00:12:16Z")
[QUOTE=Broomstick] I don’t judge “hotness” of women, but my husband thought the lady host was “bitchy”. Of course, my husband is married to a HAWT woman who flies airplanes which is perhaps a hard standard to meet. [/QUOTE] And how many wives does your hubby have? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/37 "2008-01-19T01:40:17Z")
To continue the hijack… That’s why Kari is so appealing- smart woman, great looks, adventuresome, smart woman, red hair, sense of humor, smart woman… Nerds and geeks and smart folks of both sexes hate the dumb bimbos, and those who pretend to be (and should know better). ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/38 "2008-01-19T01:45:05Z")
Well, I do prefer a smart woman who pretends to be a dumb bimbo to a dumb bimbo who imagines she’s a smart woman. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/39 "2008-01-31T04:02:32Z")
My daughter and I recently caught a couple of episodes and were not very impressed. Her opinion is that the announcer on Smash Lab is a bit over the top (“tries to make everything sound like it’s the most important thing in the world”) I find them not as interesting to watch as Mythbusters. Don’t know what it is - Lack of on-screen charisma? - Newbie jitters? - Lack of talking directly to the camera? - other? Let’s see how they mature and settle into their roles. Maybe it will get better later on. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976/40 "2008-01-31T06:15:59Z")
> [@](#): > > That can’t be right since Kari’s background is in art and doesn’t really do any science on the show. Huh, I didn’t know that. She still seems to understand what’s going on a lot better than Deanne, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-see-smash-lab-on-discovery-channel/433976.md?page=3)