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.
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...It was 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 mythbuster?
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?
Well, teah, 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."
"Hey, cool!
Ah!
AH!"
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."