Myth Busters

On the TV show, Myth Busters, the crew consider a popular myth and then perform experiments that are designed to discover whether the myth is confirmed, plausible, or busted.

On many shows they appear to be confused about how to test the myth and, after several failures and lots of laughs, they finally have a flash of inspiration which enables them to design a brand new experiment that works extremely well. The sequence goes a bit like this: 

• Ooh look at silly old us. We don't know what we're doing.
• Gee, we nearly had it that time, so we're on the right track.
• We just had a flash of inspiration and we're going to do it this way.
• Holy cow, it worked! We are brilliant.

I'm calling bullshit showmanship!

I think they film the segments in reverse order. They start with the obvious, workable experiment, and collect all the required data. Once they've got that essential experiment safely filmed and in the can; that's when they start looking for some dopey ways to do the experiment to give the audience a laugh, or a thrill, or whatever.

I mean those guys are not dumb. Toss any myth at them and probably within ten seconds they have already thought of a good way to test it. A few more minutes of thought and they will have a good idea about the sort of experiment they will need. And after that - with their budget - they just buy and build whatever is necessary to test the myth. 

Then, having done that, they mess around with the dopey experiments in order to create some laughs or thrills - and then they play the segments back in reverse order. A few laughs to get the audience in a good mood; a failed experiment to heighten the tension, and then a spectacular climax at the end.

I'm not complaining. It's a good way to present the various options and I enjoy watching the program. Just sayin' that's all.