Mythbusters

[ivyfic]

I don't remember who told me that Mythbusters was Jackass for geeks, but it's really really true. When I first started watching, they seemed to be competent people who took calculated risks (for science!). Now, having seen about twenty eps, many from early on through Netflix, I've seen them intentionally drop themselves from five feet onto concrete to simulate a plane crash, zap each other with a cattle prod, get fully painted with aluminum paint to see if it will put them in the hospital like the Tin Man, attempt to shrink jeans they were wearing enough to cut off blood flow, and dip their unprotected hands in molten lead. And those were experiments. That doesn't even include the accidentally firing a penny gun into a fluorescent light, standing right next to the chamber of gasoline fumes when they ignited it, tripping and falling over various things, and getting their lips sucked into a vacuum.

I mean, it's good television, but dear god. They let these people play with explosives?

Comments

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

The really scary thing, as revealed in the behind-the-scenes episode, is that they have an official Safety Officer...and it's Jamie.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

It was the behind-the-scenes episode that made me go holy shit. I mean, better Jamie than Adam, but Jamie's still the guy who was leaning over the muzzle of his penny gone when it accidentally fired, barely missing his head.

I think the most appalling was when Jamie rigged the guts of four microwaves together and then turned it on to see what happens. And Adam and Jamie jsut stood back a bit. Um, hello. Standing back does not help with microwaves. Have you not heard of shielding????

Explosives and stunts I believe they have experience with. But when they get out of that comfort zone, it's truly appalling. The only reason why I can watch these episodes is because I know they're not dead yet.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA! That was meeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Yay! :-P

[sasha-b.livejournal.com]

I can sit and watch that show for hours. I shudder to think what that says about me. *laughs*

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

My friends and I can have half hour conversations entirely made up of "did you see the Mythbusters episode where they..." I've seen this happen more than once.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think the best part is that they often show Adam on the phone with the insurance people, all of whom probably have chronic ulcers over insuring these guys. But think of it: as crazy as things they do are, there are things they are not allowed to do. Then again, just because the insurance guys won't let Adam do it doesn't mean he can't send to Tory to do it...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that, no. It seems the only thing that keeps them from doing even crazier shit is legal restrictions.

Tory I see as the primary jackass. There's that clip where one of the girl cohosts (when they had two) tells the other "let's egg him on until he hurts himself" and they do. They get him to try to jump a bike over a wheelbarrow, which sends him over the handle bars onto his face. Grant seems to have a bit more of a sense of self-preservation. And Carrie is usually off to the side somewhere letting the boys take the falls. (Actually it kind of annoys me about the show that she's always off to the side. Adam, Jamie, Tory, and Grant all have Hollywood special effects experience and she...has breasts?)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Well, now Carrie's off having had a baby. I'm not sure if they even bothered to replace her or not. She has some skills, mostly in building and design, but her skills aren't up to Grant's and she doesn't get to do the stunts like Tory. She gets to be the dummy if anything (like the one where she tested cures for jellyfish stings).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

It really bothers me, Carrie's special person status. The first few episodes I saw, she was pregnant, so it made sense. But she's kept to the side regardless. It seems like she's good at building things, yes, but she doesn't design anything. It's so clear Tory and Grant are there for their skills and she's there for geek eye candy. It makes it more of a boys club to have her there but kept apart than if there were no women on the show at all. I don't know. It just bothers me is that the only reason a woman's there is to please the men, not any sort of sense that women might find this interesting too.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Carrie isn't as off to the side as all that. Yes, she does less, but she doesn't do nothing at all. She got more involved with time. No, she doesn't have the skills that the other two do, which is sad. She's actually apparently an artist, which would explain her level of comfort with the mold-making process. I find that sort of angle on the human body (and of what it is capable) interesting. Sadly, I don't find her interesting since she comes off as all talk.

The real issue is that she shouldn't be there for her technical skills, since she doesn't have any and looks worse by comparison to the others. I don't think, however, that it's fair to say she was there for eye candy. Not at first. (The bra-and-lab-coat photo shoot she did later? Yeah, okay.)