Does Mythbusters make up myths?

No, I thought they just get there myths off old movies that they watch or fans of theres that write to them to ask what to do…... well I am not quite sure???

yeah i’ve seen a few that were questionable, or maybe not even myths but something commonly seen on TV or movies like can a sword really slice another? or if cards could cut people if thrown hard enough.

Adam Savage asked for wild west myths on ask.mefi when they were running low on ideas for the episode. So I doubt they just make shit up. Here is the link.

I’ve guess I’ve always just thought that there is probably a nearly inexhaustible supply of things out there that people choose to believe, in spite of the fact that not only are they not true, but that the laws of physics would seem to indicate were impossible. It’s never occurred to me that the MythBuster guys would ever have to resort to making stuff up. And there is simply a tremendous amount of stuff that goes on in movies that could never really happen in real life, or would happen slightly or quite a bit differently than it would in real life, that just the way movies have always been and always will be.

Mythbusters a fraud? I don’t think so

@lillycoyote @kenmc Actually, the problem was this: I care. I don’t hold it against him, but I care. I understand that everyone needs to make a living and has bills to pay and bread to put on their tables, and I have no problem with them continuing to do so. However, after the bottle smashing episode, I preceded to spend 5 hours on Google trying to find out where this myth came from. Was it particular to Hollywood, or true to real life? Was it isolated to one or two areas, or wide-spread? What caused it – a freak accident? A moral panic? A misinterpretation of a text? If they’re making shit up, that’s fine, I’m no less entertained. I would, however, like to know so that the cultural anthropologist in me doesn’t waste time looking for something that isn’t there.

@papayalily Well, that’s 5 hours of your life you’ll never get back. I’m not sure if it was worth. It took me about 15 minutes to find this article from the New York Time from 2009 on the same problem: Do empty or full beer bottles cause more damage?. The study was probably done in 2008 and whatever made these guys interested in the subject was probably brought to their attention at the very least a year or two earlier. Can I find the origins of this myth? No. But these scientists and the Mythbuster guys most likey did not pull the whole thing out of thin air.

This comment seems a little rude and rough, and I don’t mean it that way, but I don’t have time to edit right now. The editing window is going to close any second now. You know I love you:-)

Regardless of whether or not the myths are made up or just things people saw on tv to be questioned, the questions they bring up make me think “is that actually possible?” so it’s pretty entertaining to watch and find out.