# How much of Mythbusters is staged? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805 "2010-01-13T17:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/21 "2010-01-14T07:57:06Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I guess faking enthusiasm is staging. The last few seasons have been geared towards a younger audience. Grant and Tory over do it sometimes. “All right kids, can Tory slide down a ski lift cable with his blue jeans!” 😃 > > You could tell Tory thought the whole myth was lame. But, they got to fill air time. I was actually surprised by that one. I figured they would rip pretty quickly, but since I’ve never been neat a ski lift I had no idea the slope wasn’t steep enough to get them to move. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/22 "2010-01-14T08:13:13Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#): > > Wow. I didn’t know that. Do you have any ideas on how we might be able to test this experimentally? I’m sorry I insulted your intelligence, but I was just speaking to the topic at hand. You want a hug? ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/23 "2010-01-14T12:07:34Z")
Some of the conversation seems ad-libbed, but with a set-up. However, some in the past didn’t. I remember the killer quicksand myth where Adam and Jamie couldn’t agree how to fill a water tank, had argument and seemed genuinely upset with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Short\_Guy\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@Short\_Guy\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short_Guy_1)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/24 "2010-01-14T12:47:39Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Sometimes the myths they are busting are commonly held misconceptions that they, as people familiar with the laws of physics or principles of chemistry, are aware of the facts, but most of the rest of us have grasped the wrong end of the stick for most of our lives. So they have to demonstrate to prove it. The one I remember is when they tested to see what a plane would do taking off on a treadmill. With even the slightest bit of rational thought, everyone (with the bizarre exception of the pilot doing the flying) must have known exactly how that was going to turn out. Jamie, if memory serves, actually said as much after the experiment was over, saying something to the effect of “of course we knew that…”. It was a very clear example to me of a premise that didn’t really need testing, but made for great viewing anyway in the way that they tested it. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/25 "2010-01-14T13:12:44Z")
> [@Short\_Guy](#): > > The one I remember is when they tested to see what a plane would do taking off on a treadmill. With even the slightest bit of rational thought, everyone (with the bizarre exception of the pilot doing the flying) must have known exactly how that was going to turn out. Jamie, if memory serves, actually said as much after the experiment was over, saying something to the effect of “of course we knew that…”. It was a very clear example to me of a premise that didn’t really need testing, but made for great viewing anyway in the way that they tested it. While I, too, thought it should be clear that the plane would be able to take off, that particular myth was the topic of a HUGE ‘debate’ that raged across the internet, including on this very message board. There were a LARGE number of people who didn’t think the plane would be able to take off from a treadmill. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/26 "2010-01-14T17:07:23Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > First, you get some explosives… No, no, you do a small-scale test first. The explosives come at the end, but be sure to show preview explosions before and after every commercial break. > [@Tangent](#): > > While I, too, thought it should be clear that the plane would be able to take off, that particular myth was the topic of a HUGE ‘debate’ that raged across the internet, including on this very message board. There were a LARGE number of people who didn’t think the plane would be able to take off from a treadmill. There are _still_ people who think that way, even after the test on the show. Something about the wheels still being able to get traction through the canvas or some stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/27 "2010-01-14T17:48:13Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Sure, they know that, and you know that, and many of us here would know that (plus most people who’ve seen the show before: bullets get mashed when they hit anything hard.), but the point of the whole show is to _ **actually try it** _, and then show the results to the idiot masses that think they _know_ bullets ricochet. Well, I _do_ know bullets can ricochet off steel. A problem with Mythbusters is they will do ten trials and then say a one-in-a-thousand event can’t happen. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0ABGIJwiGBc/hqdefault.jpg "Guy hit in head with .50 caliber ricochet") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc) ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UujfnEa5jLY/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/UujfnEa5jLY?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/28 "2010-01-14T17:58:20Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > I’m sorry I insulted your intelligence, but I was just speaking to the topic at hand. You want a hug? For the viewers at home unfamiliar with the lingo of the show, this is a woosh, where one of the presenters intentionally states a misconception in order for the other to immediately clear it up and say that that isn’t what we’re testing. But here’s how we will do it - first, we’ll get some explosives. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/29 "2010-01-14T18:38:31Z")
No, no, no. First you conduct a small-scale test. Then you conduct a larger test and find some way to get a robot involved. Perhaps a crash test dummy or a ballistics gel dummy as well. Then you trot out the explosives. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/30 "2010-01-14T18:52:00Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > No, no, no. First you conduct a small-scale test. Then you conduct a larger test and find some way to get a robot involved. Perhaps a crash test dummy or a ballistics gel dummy as well. > > Then you trot out the explosives. You’re testing that stapler myth again, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/31 "2010-01-14T18:58:15Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > Well, I _do_ know bullets can ricochet off steel. A problem with Mythbusters is they will do ten trials and then say a one-in-a-thousand event can’t happen. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc) > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UujfnEa5jLY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UujfnEa5jLY) Sure they can, but that wasn’t the myth. The ricochet myth was that bullet could ricochet off of three steel girders or plates, would/could turn 45 degrees each time, to return and hit the shooter. Simply not possible, since a HUGE amount of energy is lost with each impact (as became painfully obvious on the high-speed footage). There was little argument that in many cases the bullet was still lethal after the first and even the second bounce. FWIW, I totally Ralphie’d myself with a BB gun when I was a kid. A straight back into my eye ricochet, from shooting at a _round_ metal pole from about 40 feet away. When I think of the odds of bouncing a round ball straight back at the source from a round pole…but I guess that’s what you might expect from a dead-center “good” shot. But no way it would’ve even reached me if it bounced at an angle off the pole, off the side of the house, and then in my direction. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/32 "2010-01-14T19:17:03Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > While I, too, thought it should be clear that the plane would be able to take off, that particular myth was the topic of a HUGE ‘debate’ that raged across the internet, including on this very message board. There were a LARGE number of people who didn’t think the plane would be able to take off from a treadmill. Wait, what exactly happened? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/33 "2010-01-14T19:48:44Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > Wait, what exactly happened? [Plane took off](http://mythbustersresults.com/episode97) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/34 "2010-01-14T20:21:15Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > _Jimmy???_ I keep thinking it’s maybe some hybrid of Mythbusters & The Man Show. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/35 "2010-01-14T20:27:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Actually the mice and the elephants got together before the taping and agreed to fake it because they were afraid that otherwise Jamie and Adam would blow them up for a dramatic finish. This made me guffaw in my cubicle. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/36 "2010-01-15T03:21:45Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The OP is proposing that they faked testing a copper jacketed bullet hitting a metal plate? How do you think they showed the effect other than doing it straight? > > And if they’re going to show the effect, then why not do it first, just in case some surprising result occurs? Not that the sequence is faked, but the general “Gee I don’t know what’ll happen if a bullet hit the steel platings, let’s try it out and see what happen!” and the surprise/astonishment expressed when “gosh, the bullet shattered!” ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/37 "2010-01-15T04:20:06Z")
> [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](#): > > Not that the sequence is faked, but the general “Gee I don’t know what’ll happen if a bullet hit the steel platings, let’s try it out and see what happen!” and the surprise/astonishment expressed when “gosh, the bullet shattered!” _shrug_ It’d be rather dull to watch if they were just like, “Alright well this is dumb.”, for everything. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/38 "2010-01-15T23:45:19Z")
I must have missed the ricochet show, so I don’t know what the myth was. I do know that a ricocheting **bullet fragment** can come back to hurt the shooter. It happened to my boss. In addition to his boss job, he was a part time county cop, and he was required to re-qualify with his sidearm periodically. He was doing that when a piece of his bullet came back to hit him in the hand. He wore a big bandage for a week, and he took a lot of ribbing about it, including getting him some Kevlar gloves from the crib. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/39 "2010-01-16T00:00:25Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > Wait, what exactly happened? It’s difficult or impossible to use a treadmill to keep a plane from moving forward, and when it moves forward it does take off. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805/40 "2010-01-16T00:48:34Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > Wait, what exactly happened? Or, if you meant the other half of the quote (about it being popular): They said at the time that this (plane on a treadmill) was the most-requested myth they every got. And frankly, doing the experiment did absolutely nothing to convince the naysayers, judging from the continued activity. You can join in the fun and argue about it yourself, either at the Mythbuster’s [forums](http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9401967776/m/4441931059) (359 pages(!) of fun!) or [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=361386&page=8&highlight=treadmill), a mere 8 pages recently, or the historic [meta thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=465003). (Hint: A plane with it’s brakes on can’t take off, but that’s both not very interesting, and can’t be simulated with treadmill.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-mythbusters-is-staged/524805.md?page=3)