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.
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00:00Jamie Hyneman was always the quieter, more reserved half of the MythBusters team, while
00:05Adam Savage was arguably the more charismatic of the two.
00:08But although Jamie might have appeared pretty low-key on the show, there's been a lot more
00:12going on for him off-camera.
00:14Here's the untold truth of Jamie Hyneman.
00:17Surprise!
00:18Hyneman was once an unruly, underage hooligan.
00:21Faced with the prospect of reform school, a 14-year-old Hyneman ran away from home and
00:25set off on a six-month hitchhiking adventure.
00:27When I left home, I had $1.49 in my pocket.
00:30It was just enough for me to get a slice of pizza."
00:33According to the Christian Science Monitor, the fun ended in California when he got tossed
00:37into a juvenile detention center, where his parents later picked him up.
00:41It was great.
00:42I had a great time.
00:44Just before graduating high school, Hyneman's dad convinced him to buy an actual pet shop.
00:48Don't touch that!
00:49You bond with it, you buy it!
00:52According to Keith Zimmerman's MythBusters tell-all, Jamie bought the shop and sold rodents,
00:57birds, and animal food.
00:58Little boys love snakes.
01:00Through the business, he obtained several pet snakes, as well as a lion cub, which he
01:04raised on his parents' apple farm.
01:06But Hyneman eventually sold the pet shop so he could go to college.
01:10So what skills do you need to become a MythBuster?
01:12Well, if you're Hyneman, a degree in Russian language and literature.
01:16According to Indiana University, Hyneman has, quote, "...exploded any myth that studying
01:21the humanities will not lead to an exciting and successful career."
01:25That may be true, but why Russian?
01:27I must break you.
01:30Jamie just needed to pick a language for his bachelor's degree, and he liked the sound
01:34of it.
01:35After college, Hyneman moved to the Caribbean, where he bought a boat, became a divemaster,
01:39and opened a charter business, according to Mental Floss.
01:43Hyneman also met his wife, who was a diving instructor in the Virgin Islands, while running
01:47the charter business.
01:48But as Zimmerman wrote, after 3,000 dives and two hurricanes, Jamie finally got sick
01:52of scrubbing the bottom of his boat and decided to sail it to New York.
01:56This one's busted.
01:57It's gotta be.
01:58All right, let's go get some fish and chips.
02:00Sounds good.
02:01MythBusters is a show about two guys living in the Bay Area who build stuff together and
02:05bicker like an old married couple.
02:07So it's not too surprising that some viewers got the wrong idea about their relationship.
02:11Shall we put some of this chaos to work?
02:14Sounds tasty.
02:15Even Discovery Channel made some assumptions.
02:17Adam Savage told The Sneeze,
02:19Among themselves, the network wondered if they could do a show with a couple of homosexuals
02:23from San Francisco.
02:25Fans even wondered about it, too.
02:26Hyneman told The Age,
02:27"'We got a lot of gay fan mail when the show first started, something to do with being
02:32in San Francisco and being a big, burly guy with a big mustache.
02:35But we're both happily married.
02:37To women.'"
02:38"'Adam, we happy?'
02:40Yeah, we happy."
02:43Hyneman is best known for MythBusters, and like it or not, MythBusters will probably
02:47remain his legacy.
02:49"'Am I emotional about the end of the show?
02:51Well, yeah, I suppose I am a little bit.
02:54We've done some amazing things over all those years.'"
02:57But he's a man of many interests.
02:59According to Gadgetopia, Hyneman's M5 Industries even built a soda can chucking machine that
03:04was featured in a 7-Up commercial.
03:06"'To make it more convenient for people to enjoy the refreshing taste of 7-Up, I made
03:10vending machines that find you.'"
03:14Jamie told The Star,
03:16"'They asked me if I could invent a vending machine that would spit cans out on demand.
03:20I told them, for the right price, I could invent a vending machine that would send cans
03:24into orbit.'"
03:25"'Hey, cool.'
03:26Ah!
03:27Ah!'
03:28Now that MythBusters is behind him, Hyneman's got some free time.
03:33So what's he doing with it?
03:34Did he retire to a sailboat in the Caribbean?
03:37Is he raising snakes and lion cubs?
03:39Nope.
03:40Hyneman now invents awesome futuristic devices with the same coolness factor as hovercraft
03:44and jetpacks.
03:45"'He's on a hoverboard!'
03:46Hoverboard!'
03:47One of his latest projects?
03:53Electric shoes.
03:54Sure, sneakers with electric lights have been around for ages, but Hyneman's shoes are like
03:58moving walkways strapped to your feet.
04:01He told New Atlas,
04:02"'They're not intended to be ridden.
04:04They're intended to be walked in.
04:05They're like having airport walkways strapped to your feet.
04:08The shoes have a kind of tank track on them, and they're full of lots of extra stuff like
04:13batteries, accelerometers, and infrared sensors, that are evidently meant to stop you from
04:17bumping into things."
04:19Pretty cool concept.
04:20Would you expect anything less from this guy?
04:22What's it good for?
04:24"'I have no idea.'"