Ohio State students got busted last night when Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of the TV show, Mythbusters, lectured at the Ohio Union last night.
The two talked about how they got started on the show and how they went about debunking myths and also revealed some of the myths they will be busting on the upcoming season.
Both stars got their start doing special effects for Hollywood.
“I’ve always wanted to work with special effects,” said Savage. He originally became interested when he saw Star Wars at age eleven.
Since then, he has gotten to work for George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic special effects company. Savage’s work includes the first two episodes of Star Wars as well as second and third Matrix films.
“It would have been nice to work on a film worth owning,” Savage said.
Hyneman owns his own special effects business.
“I learned it was possible to get a job doing something that was fun,” Hyneman said.
Savage and Hyneman were originally cast on the show, “Robot Wars,” where they created Blendo, a “spinning saucer of death,” Savage said.
Part of the premise and appeal of the Discovery Channel show is that neither of the two is educated in science, which is what the station was looking for.
In fact, Hyneman has a college degree in Russian while Savage himself has no college degree, Savage said.
Instead, Savage and Hyneman are driven by their willingness to find out how things work more or less by trial and error, which provides an appeal to more than just the scientific community.
Still, they are treated as peers by scientists because they share the same interests, which is gratifying, Hyneman said.
Hyneman said it is gratifying to create an interest in science through their show and great that people like intelligent television.
Sometimes the entertainment value threatens to overtake the intelligence aspect, but Savage and Hyneman fight to keep the focus on science.
When asked about safety, they said they take it very seriously because besides the fact that they don’t want to get hurt, the insurance company is a cause for concern.
Savage said there is a question on their insurance forms that asks, “What is the worst case scenario and the likelihood that it would happen?”
The moderator then asked when they would run out of myths.
“When will people stop doing stupid stuff?” Hyneman said.
The Mythbusters also took the time to show a blooper reel from the upcoming season of the show. The first segment of the reel showed Hyneman dropping a toaster into a bathtub containing Savage.
Some of the hijinks Savage and Hyneman have filmed for the next season include building the world’s largest slingshot between two radio towers and busting the myth of the five-second rule.
So this coming season, viewers will learn that Hyneman’s toilet seat was cleaner than the floor, and a dog’s tongue was cleaner than Savage’s, Savage said.
