Jamie Hyneman was always the quieter, more reserved half of the Mythbusters team,
while Adam Savage was arguably the more charismatic of the two.
But although Jamie might have appeared pretty low-key on the show, there's been
a lot more going on for him, off-camera. Here's the untold truth of Jamie Hyneman.
"Firing in 3-2-1" Surprise! Hyneman was
once an unruly underage hooligan. Faced with the prospect of reform school,
a 14-year-old Hyneman ran away from home, and set off on a six-month hitchhiking adventure.
"When I left home I had a dollar forty-nine in my pocket"
"Just enough for me to get a slice of pizza"
According to the Christian Science Monitor, the fun ended in California,
when he got tossed into a juvenile detention center, where his parents later picked him up.
"It was great. I had a great time"
Just before graduating high school, Hyneman's dad convinced him to buy an actual pet shop.
"Don't touch that. You bond with it, you buy it"
According to Keith Zimmerman's MythBusters tell-all,
Jamie bought the shop and sold rodents, birds, and animal food.
"Little boys love snakes"
Through the business he obtained several pet snakes as well as a lion cub, which he raised on
his parents' apple farm. But Hyneman eventually sold the pet shop so he could go to college.
So what skills do you need to become a myth buster? Well, if you're Hyneman,
a degree in Russian language and literature. According to Indiana University, Hyneman has,
quote, "exploded any myth that studying the humanities will not lead to an
exciting and successful career." That may be true, but why Russian?
"I must break you"
Jamie just needed to pick a language for his bachelor's degree, and he liked the sound of it!
After college, Hyneman moved to the Caribbean, where he bought a boat,
became a divemaster, and opened a charter business, according to Mental Floss.
Hyneman also met his wife — who was a diving instructor in the Virgin Islands — while
running the charter business. But, as Zimmerman wrote, after 3,000 dives and two hurricanes,
Jamie finally got sick of scrubbing the bottom of his boat and decided to sail it to New York.
"So this one's busted. It's gotta be. Alright let's go get some fish-n-chips. Sounds good."
MythBusters is a show about two guys living in the Bay Area,
who build stuff together and bicker like an old married couple. So it's
not too surprising that some viewers got the wrong idea about their relationship.
"Shall we put some of this chaos to work? Sounds tasty"
Even Discovery channel made some assumptions. Adam Savage told The Sneeze,
"Among themselves, [the network] wondered if they
could do a show with a couple of homosexuals from San Francisco."
Fans even wondered about it, too. Hyneman told The Age,
"We got a lot of gay fan mail when the show first started. Something
to do with being in San Francisco and being a big,
burly guy with a big moustache. But we're both happily married. To women."
"Adam. We happy? Yeah, we happy"
Hyneman is best known for MythBusters,
and like it or not, MythBusters will probably remain his legacy.
"Am I emotional about the end of the show? Yeah, I suppose I am a little bit."
"We've done some amazing things over all those years"
But he's a man of many interests. According to Gadgetopia, Hyneman's M5 Industries even
built a soda can-chucking machine that was featured in a 7-Up commercial.
"To make it more convenient for people to enjoy the refreshing taste of 7-up,
I made vending machines that find you"
Jamie told The Star,
"They asked me if I could invent a vending machine that would spit cans out on demand. I told them
for the right price, I could invent a vending machine that would send cans into orbit."
Now that MythBusters is behind him, Hyneman's got some free time. So what's he doing with
it? Did he retire to a sailboat in the Caribbean? Is he raising snakes and lion cubs? Nope! Hyneman
now invents awesome, futuristic devices with the same coolness factor as hovercraft and jetpacks.
"He's on a hoverboard…get the board"
One of his latest projects? Electric shoes. Sure, sneakers with electric lights have been around
for ages, but Hyneman's shoes are like moving walkways strapped to your feet. He told New Atlas,
"They're not intended to be 'ridden.' They're intended
to be walked in. […] They're like having airport walkways strapped to your feet."
The shoes have a kind of tank track on them, and they're full of lots of extra stuff like
batteries, accelerometers, and infrared sensors that are evidently meant to stop
you from bumping into things. Pretty cool concept. But would you expect anything less from this guy?
"Cool. What's it good for? I have no idea"
Most kids fake illness to avoid doing their chores so their parents will just mow the
lawn themselves. But not Jamie Hyneman. He knew those were just stalling tactics.
Hyneman grew up on an apple farm, so his chores didn't just include vacuuming and feeding the dog.
He had actual farm chores to do, which included things like picking apples, washing apples,
sorting apples, and generally becoming sick of apples. He told Northeast Valley News that he
once sabotaged the family lawn mower to avoid having to take care of the yard. He revealed:
"I figured out that if I repeatedly ran the mower into the tree that something would break and I
would no longer have to mow the lawn because the lawn mower was broken. I also discovered
that I could pull the spark plug wire back in its socket and make the machines not work."
Kids, don't try that at home.
"Listen, do not, under any circumstances…"
"Try this at home."
"We're what you call experts."
"We do this for a living."
You may only know Jamie Hyneman as the grumbly half of the MythBusters duo. There's a lot of
stuff about him that doesn't fit his TV persona but he's done some things that are very in line
with the meticulous, analytical personality we all came to know through 13 years of MythBusters.
Hyneman's special effects work wasn't so much his destiny as it was a conclusion he
came to after many long hours in a library. He told StarWars.com:
"I figured I should think carefully about it and research my options. I made lists of
interests and priorities, spent a lot of time in the library reading about
anything that seemed like a possibility, and decided special effects was the way to go."
While Jamie Hyneman sometimes finds motivation in libraries,
he wants the world to know that he also finds inspiration via exercise equipment,
which is at least marginally more interesting than a library for an inventor.
He told Udacity Talks that he believes the mind and the body really aren't so separate,
so when he's trying to solve a design problem, he exercises. He revealed:
"The first thing I do is I get on a treadmill because I find that
that mind/body connection is really important."
Hyneman says science backs up the practice,
too. Increased oxygen levels and changes in body chemistry can help stimulate the mind,
which can lead to ideas and problem solving. How about treadmills that
give you ideas without making you exercise? Now that would be a million dollar invention.
"He's not quitting."
"Nope."
Jamie Hyneman is almost never seen without his signature beret,
which makes him look sort of like a French mime. It left fans everywhere desperate
to know the story behind the ubiquitous hat. The MythBusters host told The Age:
"My hair was falling out so I got in the habit of
wearing a hat. And I didn't like baseball caps so I got a beret."
But the beret wasn't so much to cover up the hair
loss as it was to cover up the shine of his scalp. He added:
"If my hair was going to fall out, I figured I might as well shave it,
but if I shave it I look like a cue ball."
Hyneman figured he should balance out the shiny dome, even though it's always under the beret,
with some facial hair. Hence the handlebar mustache that completed the signature look
that he maintained through pretty much every season of MythBusters and beyond.
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage have always been seen as opposites,
and it's definitely true. They are very much opposites.
"Shut up and leave me alone."
"There's those people skills hard at work."
After MythBusters ended, Savage went to YouTube and created Adam Savage's Tested so he could
remain in the public eye, where he has always felt comfortable. Hyneman, on the other hand,
faded into the background. He's still around, of course, but he doesn't appear in public too
much now. But what he's creating out of sight is every bit as important.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Hyneman didn't get into Twitter wars
with anti-maskers. He decided to be a part of the solution. According to the Indiana
University Bloomington School of Public Health, Hyneman received the university's Bicentennial
Medal for his work as an alumnus who increased public interest in science through MythBusters.
He also worked with the university's School of Public Health on engineering better personal
protective equipment for healthcare providers and nursing staff to use during the pandemic.
It's not clear if a Hyneman brand N-95 is going to hit the market anytime soon,
but the work was significant enough to receive the school's recognition.
Lots of people have great gadget ideas but most of us lack the technical skills necessary to
bring our visions to life. According to Popular Mechanics, Jamie Hyneman invented and built the
prototype of a remotely operated firefighting tank. The tank can carry 1,000 gallons of
water and 100 gallons of flame-retardant foam. It's covered with flame-resistant
fabric—the same material firefighting suits are lined with—and has high powered water guns that
shoot wherever the operator is looking. It also self-cools by spraying a mixture of glycerin
and water over its internal components so it can survive driving right into a fire.
The machine is apparently based on a non-armored M548 military cargo carrier, which you can get
from your local Army surplus store. Hyneman delivered the prototype to his financier in 2018,
and with any luck, we'll see it start showing up to take on wildfires within the next few years.
Jamie Hyneman and his former co-host Adam Savage are big in Europe — both
have honorary doctorates from a university in the Netherlands. And Jamie Hyneman is revered
in Finland, with The LUT University of Finland naming a lab after him,
the J. Hyneman Center. According to the Helsinki Times, the lab is like the MythBusters workshop.
It exists so students can use it to build and test their creative ideas.
The lab's name wasn't just a nod to Hyneman from his fans on the other side of the world.
Hyneman also has an honorary doctorate from the university. And in 2021, the university made him
a Professor of Practice, which is a non-tenured faculty position with a specific professional
background. It's not just an honorary title, as Hyneman gives lectures and helps students
with their projects. Shortly after accepting the position, Hyneman noted that he wasn't going to be
setting any goals for his collaboration with the university, as the travel can be tough.
All you have to do is watch MythBusters to know that Jamie Hyneman has hands-on,
practical experience at blowing things up. But as it turns out, all those years behind the detonator
attracted the attention of some actual industry leaders, including the International Association
of Bomb Technicians and Investigators. The association is a non-profit that provides
training to police, military, and others who have to detect and defuse bombs as a job function.
The association and the MythBusters go way back, too. The show had to consult
pros for safety reasons whenever they were planning to make something go boom. It also
helped to have some experts on hand so they didn't look completely unhinged.
"I think we got what we came for."
Local bomb squads participated in around twenty MythBusters episodes. In return, Hyneman and
Savage were invited to speak at the 2008 International Training Conference Banquet, where
they were both given plaques naming the two hosts honorary life-long members of the association.
Jamie Hyneman doesn't really seem to crave the spotlight, but he does love to do things
that make a difference. Besides working on better PPE and a firefighting tank,
he's also worked with the military. But instead of making better weapons,
Hyneman tested better ways to protect soldiers. According to DiscoveryNews,
the Office of Naval Research enlisted his help in 2011 to develop armor for military vehicles.
The armor had to be lightweight enough that it wouldn't affect the vehicle's performance,
but still capable of stopping shrapnel and protecting the vehicle's occupants
from a blast. The military high-ups actually called Hyneman instead of The International
Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators for the job.
It wasn't the first time Hyneman worked with the military. He also
designed a robotic medical dummy for the Army to use while training new
medics. The idea was to prepare medics for the real world of the battlefield.
Some people are terrified of spiders. Others make entire movies about them
starring live spider actors. The 1990 film Arachnophobia, for example, was made by the
latter. The former probably never saw the flick. Unfortunately, there's really only so much you
can do with live spiders on the set of a movie, as filming spiders usually involves just turning
them loose and hoping they'll eventually scamper in the direction you need them to.
For some scenes, you're going to need fake spiders. In the time before CGI,
those fake spiders had to be animatronic. So where does one get an animatronic spider? Cue
Jamie Hyneman. According to The Art Direction Handbook for Film,
Hyneman was hired after he showed producers a magnetic spider he designed to crawl across
a metal pan. The magnetic spider didn't get the role, but Hyneman got the job.
This was before the inception of MythBusters, when Hyneman was working in special effects and
hadn't even made a name for himself yet. According to Den of Geek, the spider of
Hyneman's that appeared in the movie was used as a sort of stunt spider and got all the close-ups.
If you were a MythBusters fan, you got to know the MythBusters workshop intimately over
the years. But unless you were a rabid fan who paid a whole lot of attention to small details,
you might have also assumed it was a set. After all, isn't everything on television shot on a set?
The MythBusters workshop is actually a real place:
the M5 Industries lab. Jamie Hyneman owns it and always has. According to Popular Mechanics,
the south San Francisco workshop no longer has cameras in every corner,
but some of the MythBusters inventions are still there. Hyneman still works there, only he's no
longer surrounded by the MythBusters crew. He sometimes even gives tours to the local kids.
Battlebots seems like exactly the right side hustle for Jamie Hyneman. And let's face it,
pretty much anyone working on MythBusters. The host spent a lot of time destroying the
things he created, and that's exactly what BattleBots was — part Mad Max,
part Roman gladiators. Designers built robots and then the robots tore each
other apart for an audience. And the best part was that no one got hurt.
According to Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation, back in 1995, Hyneman built a BattleBots
robot out of a lawnmower engine and a wok. He welded blades onto the outside of the wok
and put the whole thing on a spinning steel ring. The robot, dubbed Blendo,
spun at 80 miles per hour and won the few battles it was permitted to enter in just a couple of
seconds. Ending a fight that quickly maybe doesn't make a competition show enjoyable. Another issue
with Blendo is that it was an insurance company's nightmare. Showrunners quickly
decided that Blendo was a liability, and it was banned from competition for being too dangerous.
Just because you can speak Russian doesn't necessarily mean you're Vladimir Putin's
buddy. After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the rest of the
world wasn't happy with Russia or its president's decision, least of all Jamie Hyneman. On March 4,
2022, Ukraine's twitter account shared a video of Jamie Hyneman with the message:
"Jamie Hyneman has something to say and he asked us to share it with all of you."
In the video, Hyneman appears wearing his signature beret, and in Russian says:
"I have to tell you something. Russian warship — go f ---- yourself!"
Then he switches to English and implores Russian soldiers to leave Ukraine. It looks
like Hyneman's knowledge of curse words in the Russian language has its perks.