# I don't think I like the Mythbusters' assistants. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195 "2004-10-14T15:10:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/1 "2004-10-14T15:10:48Z")
Last night I watched Mythbusters for the first time this season and I must say, I don’t like all the face time the assistants are getting. What I want to see is Jaime and Adam bustin’ and bickering, not scripted funnies mouthed by the cool kids. Oh, and wasn’t the blood bomb pressure gauge neat? ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/2 "2004-10-14T15:16:22Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Last night I watched Mythbusters for the first time this season and I must say, I don’t like all the face time the assistants are getting. What I want to see is Jaime and Adam bustin’ and bickering, not scripted funnies mouthed by the cool kids. > > Oh, and wasn’t the blood bomb pressure gauge neat? I think the girls are kinda cute but their quips are very scripted. Jaime and Adam are a lot of fun and have terrific chemistry. The new format kind of bugs me, wherein they start a mythbust and then move on to the next one before finishing the first. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/3 "2004-10-14T15:18:11Z")
Oh and I meant to say I thought the Blood G-meter was cool too but I really don’t understand how it worked. Did they have to go through a bunch of different light bulbs to find one with the right breaking point? And are the tolerances of manufacturing tight enough to trust any one bulb? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/4 "2004-10-14T16:20:10Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > I think the girls are kinda cute but their quips are very scripted. Jaime and Adam are a lot of fun and have terrific chemistry. The new format kind of bugs me, wherein they start a mythbust and then move on to the next one before finishing the first. I thought that’s what they always did? 😕 I watched the chicken gun ep. last week, and they started researching the gun at the beginning, but never shot it till the end, and there was at least1 of not 2 smaller myths busted in between the start and end. But I like the assistants…well, the red head anyways, she’s a hot nerd chick. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/5 "2004-10-14T17:12:57Z")
At the beginning, they did each myth as a separate segment. 20 minutes and done. Then they decided it would keep your attention better if they dragged it out. I liked it better the old way. And I agree with the OP. They mythterns just aren’t interesting like the main hosts. They were hired to build stuff and it shows. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/6 "2004-10-14T17:19:49Z")
If you go back to the very early episodes like the rocket car episode (the pilot, I think), and biscuit cans in a hot car episode, the experiment segments were all contiguous. I’m sure some TV weenie at the Discovery Channel told them that they’d hold their viewers better for the whole hour if they break up the segments. Oh well. It is a little annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/7 "2004-10-14T17:39:02Z")
I really don’t mind the broken up segments. I’m going to be watching it for the whole hour anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/8 "2004-10-14T18:42:40Z")
I was kind of disappointed to find that they’re taking on their own myths now… gives me the creepy feeling that as Adam and Jamie continue to stay busy with the special effects business (they do Mythbusters in addition to their normal work), we’ll be seeing more and more of them. I think they’re cool _assistants_ and I always like seeing chick working with tools, but they’re no Adam and Jamie. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/9 "2004-10-14T18:43:01Z")
Breaking things up doesn’t bother me; they stopped doing the big things in one block only a couple episodes in. I do not like how they’ve reduced them to two myths and dragged them out as much as possible. It was annoying with building a giant parabolic mirror (which they really should have shot at some rigging rather than just the decks, but their conclusion was right anyway) or dropping an elevator. Those things take some time to set up and do and had lots of prep work. But does it really take half an hour of television to drop a dummy with plywood over his head? Oh, and Mythterns in the background occasionally getting to do something, good; Mythterns up front with as much TV time as Adam and Jamie, bad. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/10 "2004-10-14T19:00:42Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > But I like the assistants…well, the red head anyways, she’s a hot nerd chick. 😃 That’s Kari, who I have fallen in love with. [http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/meet/meet\_04.html](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/meet/meet_04.html) Well as much as one can fall in love with a 2 diminsion presentation of a human being that one will never meet. Her bio says she fences! I fence! Clearly we have so much in common! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jkirkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/11 "2004-10-14T19:41:07Z")
The assistants annoy me less than the bizarre logic. I REALLY want to like this show, but they sometimes seem to miss their own point. The RADAR/Laser myth segment went fine. The plywood segment, though… The specific myth was “…about the construction worker who, while holding a piece of plywood, is blown from his building by a gust of wind and falls several stories, only to be swept back onto a lower floor.” Ok then. Two parts. (1) You need to test and see how strong a wind is necessary to get a person holding a plywood sheet quickly airborne, and if a person could retain their grip when that kind of force hit the wood. (2) You need to see what kind of updraft is necessary to create the possibility of survivable flight (and again if a person could hold on). Sounds like a trip with a dummy, some instruments, and some plywood to a wind tunnel would do the trick for test one. A trip to a vertical wind tunnel like skydivers use to practice would seem to be the ticket for the updraft portion. Once you had an idea of the wind speed necessary, you would need to collect some data (or ask some experts) about wind speeds and updrafts at high-rise construction sites. Those big crane operators moving materials have to know about this kind of stuff, right? So what do they test? They test if plywood makes a good hang glider. Well, no, it doesn’t. It was a funny test, but I don’t see how it had much to do with the myth in question. ---
**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:** [October 14, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/12 "2004-10-14T19:57:06Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s Kari, who I have fallen in love with. > > [http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/m...et/meet\_04.html](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/m...et/meet_04.html) Yowza. I really need to get a TV… ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/13 "2004-10-14T20:33:32Z")
From Kari’s bio: > [@](#): > > During the “vacuum toilet” segment of one of the first episodes (which examined whether a person could get suctioned into an airline toilet), Jamie needed a 3-D scan of a person’s backside, and Kari had the right … well, you know. Wasn’t that ass enormous??? ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/14 "2004-10-14T23:08:31Z")
They built the ass over a model of hers. Just made it lots bigger. The mythterns are all right, but I liked the old style just fine. It’s one of my favorite shows. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-i-like-the-mythbusters-assistants/269195/15 "2004-10-15T00:10:50Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > Her bio says she fences! I fence! Clearly we have so much in common! 😛 ``` Oddly enough, that was my thought exactly. ``` She’s mine I tell you! 😉