Mythbusters Go Wild With Duct Tape
Written by Alice Jester
You know, I've been telling my husband for years the answer to all our household needs comes from just a roll of duct tape. He's always mocked my faith in it. Thanks to the insanely creative genius of The Mythbusters in Wednesday's episode, I got a chance to do my "in your face" dance. Ah, the sweet gyrations of victory.
You know why I love watching this show so much? It's like watching kids at Christmas. Sure, these guys are brilliant in the level of detail and planning that goes into each experiment, but it's criminal to see people like this love their jobs that much. It's pure unadulterated jubilation over destroying things. Who doesn't love watching grown adults regress to their inner child while blowing stuff up in all sorts of ways? It's the best entertainment on television today.
I've often joked that some of life's strongest foundations have been held together by duct tape and chicken wire. So, when Adam and Jamie took those elements to construct a seaworthy duct tape boat, complete with duct tape sail, and managed to navigate the choppy waters of the San Francisco Bay without sinking, I was giddy to see such a lifelong theory proven correct. Almost as giddy and those guys were enjoying their sailing adventures. One had to wonder what sort of reactions they were getting from nearby boats as the wind pushed their dark grey product of an insane imagination along the water. I was laughing and I wasn’t even there.
Speaking of insane imaginations, give the team of Kari, Grant, and Tory a duct tape mission and by the time the episode was done I was convinced they should devote an entire season to this stuff. Cannons plus duct tape equals way too much fun for this group that clearly have the coolest jobs in the world. Does duct tape hold up when firing a potato cannon? The first test proved yes, but that doesn't stop the repeated tests just for scientific accuracy. Yeah, the way they were jumping up and down and high fiving each other after each shot was all in the name of science.
How about Adam and Jamie, who found another vehicle to trash just to prove duct tape could lift its entire 5000 lbs? The theory was the open to the air strands would eventually break, but the adhesive strapped to the car would hold. After holding the car for almost two minutes in the air the tape did just that. Sure, the tape holding for that long was amazing, but the hard thud of the car crashing to the ground is what we really wanted to see. Was it cool? Oh yes.
Plus, what other show would think to build a cannon completely of duct tape? Yes, this vinyl and fabric reinforced adhesive object even holds up to blasts of gunpowder. The inner geek is fascinated, but so is that inner child. Unfortunately, the inner child that frowns at the "don't try this at home" disclaimers.
Duct tape however isn't ideal in fixing a leaky boat, or at least not one with a silver dollar sized hole in the bottom of it already at sea. It can however fasten securely a grown man to plywood while he's suspended in mid air, something that has most definitely been tried at home before, if not in every single college dorm. Duct tape is so inspirational it even inspires the philosophical. Best quote of the evening came from Adam, who compared duct tape to the force. "It has a light side and a dark side, yet it binds the universe together." So true!
Yes, last night's episode left me screaming for more. How about a hand glider made of duct tape? How many strands would it take to get that car to hold? What happens when duct tape melts? I suppose that's why this show keeps entertaining us every week. As long as the ideas and energy are boundless, they can continue to have the greatest jobs in the world and we can continue to be insanely jealous.
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