Origin of "Well, There's Your Problem" on MythBusters 

I still have fond memories of the time Adam pointed at the crater where the cement mixer used to be and said "I swear, I left it right here!"

You could tell when Jamie was especially pleased by an explosion. He'd smile just fractionally and emit a little "Huh." noise. This was equivalent to anyone else jumping up and down and whooping until they lost their voice.

"Am I missing an eyebrow?" Will forever be my favorite line from the show!!!!

My favorite use of that joke was when you guys were removing the engine block from a car. You wrestled it with crowbars until it finally fell out the bottom and slammed on the floor and (I believe) it was Jamie who looked at it and said "well there's your problem"

One of my favourite moments was when they were testing various spy myths, where one was to climb up a vent using some magnet device. I remember laughing so hard when from their makeshift security office they could hear extremely loud bangs coming from the vent, and were joking about how suspicious it was

That "that's the second largest X I've ever seen" feels like such a Monkey Island™ running gag

I loved that in MythBusters that when you proved a myth to be false you also demonstrated what it would take for the myth to be true, so as to qualify the degree of error. Much more edifying than a simple pass/fail.

When I heard about the cannon ball incident I was mortified the show would be cancelled immidietly. But when the episode aired, you were all so humble about the erroneous experiment.

One of my favorites was from Grant. He had the bendable aluminum ducting on his arms at right angles and was waving them up and down while yelling "WARNING, WARNING, WARNING" like a robot. Loved it as a kid.

It's so coincidental that Adam mentioned cigarette smoke smelling bad and people not thinking it stunk. My parents used to hide smoking from us back in the late 60's and early 70's, by smoking in their room with the door shut. The funny thing was it reeked like a nightclub in there. On Saturdays we all had chores. One being vacuuming. When we vacuumed their room we opened the night stand drawer, and in their was their ashtray that looked like a volcano of cigarettes, and ashes. We would take the vacuum hose, and suck it all out. In all the years they smoked neither of them thought to ask the other if they emptied it. Finally when we moved we asked them if they knew that we knew, they hadn't quit. By this time they had quit. I'm glad we never told them we knew. I think they smoked less because of it, and maybe even quit sooner because it was so hard to hide it. At least that's what we hoped. We lost my dad last year. He was 82 yrs old. I am sure had he continued smoking we would have lost him so much sooner, so I am thankful he quit!

By the way the myth about the tree cannon is super super famous in Bulgaria. The story goes that in the mid-late 19th century when Bulgaria was rebelling against the Ottoman empire which conquered it 4 centuries prior. Villagers were desperate to join the uprising so they build a cannon out of a cherry tree (these cannons are called "Cherry cannons" here) and they had a really strong man called Borimechkata (which means "a guy who wrestled a bear") to carry the cannon on his shoulder to the battlefield. So the story goes the cannon fired once and it split down the middle and while it didn't do any damage as a cannon the sound of it blowing up signaled the villagers to rise up and start fighting. So the story became incredibly popular signifying the willingness of the population to fight the oppressor with anything they had even if it was a bit desperate. As a result in various Bulgarian villages related to the uprisings, countless traditional restaurants serving dishes from the time and even in a lot of private homes as lawn decorations there are replicas of cherry cannons. There are literally thousands of cherry cannons everywhere in Bulgaria, and every time I see one I think of the Mythbusters episode.

I think my favourite "Well, there's your problem!" was the cement mixer explosion, where Adam finds a random piece of truck lying among the scrap, picks it up and says the famous line to the camera.

The story of the Cigarette in the toilet reminds me of a story going back to 1978, I had just finished my Trade training after joining the RAF and had arrived at my first station. as part of our orientation we had to report to the station Fire section to have a fire safety briefing, we reported to the Fireman who was giving the brief and found him stood next to a 3 inch high open topped tank of Aviation fuel that measured about 10 feet square and was filled to the absolute brim with fuel. he was calmly smoking a cigarette as he introduced himself, at his feet was a large CO2 fire extinguisher. after hus introduction he said well lets get started and threw the lit cigarette in to the tank of fuel, it of course was extinguished by the fuel as the temperature of the coal was not hot enough to ignite the fuel, he then reached for the CO2 fire extinguisher and emptied the extinguisher on to the surface of the fuel this displace enough of the fuel from the tank to allow a fuel vapour to form on the surface. when the extinguisher had been emptied he touched the plastic horn of the extinguisher against the side of the metal tank where a huge Static electric discharge that had built up as a result of using the extinguisher occurred which immediately ignited the vapour layer on the surface of the fuel. I can still picture that demonstration in my mind 43 years later. he put out his cigarette with a tank of fuel and then ignited the fuel with a fire extinguisher, that is really something that sticks in the memory

please tell me that Jamie was allowed to keep the fire suit. him coming to life (being more physically animated) when ever he wore it was always a highlight.

As some with a "I reject your reality and substitute my own" tattoo (I know it's not original to Adam), the lines from this show were great

"Well, there's your problem" is such a great punchline phrase and you used it well many times on the Mythbusters show. Not to take anything away from you popularizing the phrase, but it has been used to good effect by several memorable cartoonists, usually with a mechanic and customer looking down into the engine compartment of a car. The wonderful Edward Koren had a memorable cartoon using that punchline (with a toothy beast where the engine should be) and it eventually became the title of a collection of his cartoons. Although I can't find it online I could swear that Charles Addams had a cartoon showing a hamster wheel with a dead squirrel in the engine compartment. Anyway, however you came upon the tag, if you have something in common with those two legendary humorists you're doing alright.

I remember in the episode you said about the "target gun" something along the lines of "I love inexplicable objects that were created for a very specific purpose"

A lot of us will know "That's the second biggest ... I've ever seen" as a running gag in the Monkey Island video games. I wonder if that's where Tory has it from, or if it's older.

When Adam Savage tells you something was terrifying, you take it SERIOUSLY.

I have a question along the line of safety. On the Mythbusters show, you always used some form of bullet proof barrier. Those panels always seemed to be pretty pristine. My question is, was there any time those barriers were hit and protected the crew from a potential "that could have been my face," moments?

I like how Adam gets excited about telling his stories. always awesome to watch him tell them.

its weird...but watching your safety procedures improve every season and at times during a mere few episodes always fascinated me. like if you were vigilante enough you could tell the production order of episodes just through if they had more or less safety enforced. its just one of those weird intrigues i know

Amazing. The safety protocols are still so well ingrained, Adam is keeping his finger off of a non-existent trigger on a clearly non-functional "gun".

In 1972 in my small town in Georgia, a week before school started back at the end of summer, three high school boys in the janitor's family cleaned the boys bathroom with gasoline. Then wanting to really spiff it up proceeded with a floor buffer. As soon as they hit the switch it ignited the huge volume of gasoline fumes still in there causing a horrific explosion killing one instantly. The other two survived with major burns over 50% of their bodies. These were classmates, though not really friends. Please be careful with gasoline and its fumes.

We’re watching “Exploding Steak” at the moment, and had to pause it to remember JD’s catchphrase when he appeared briefly on screen: “De-ass the area with the quickness.”

That feeling when I realize mythbusters was so foundational to my early childhood that I didn’t know you were where I heard this and have been saying it in fabrication work for a decade. Thanks again to you and all the cast and crew for the memories and the excellent role modeling!

My favorite line from the show is something probably nobody but me remembers. Adam: I love linear data. Jamie: I'm partial to exponential curves myself.

I've used "Well, there's yer problem!" so many times and will continue to use it. Thank you for that joke. It's timeless and priceless.

The cement truck explosion is still my favorite. The stunned look from everyone was truly priceless.

Fascinating! The lack of safety measures in the early days of the show is terrifying. Glad they learned, but a bit surprised to hear that no one in their huge team stopped them from starting their test with the maximum amount of black powder allowed... :O

I love that line. There's an earlier cultural reference to "there's your problem". I remember one of the first (might have been the first) Treehouse of Terror episodes of the Simpsons in which an evil Crusty doll tree terrorized Homer, the repair tech showed up at the end and just flipped a switch on the back and said "there's your problem, it was set on Evil"

I love listening to adam talking about the mythbuster days never gets old. An incredible legacy.

As soon as you started telling that last story, I immediately thought of that gun/target object, remembering that -in the episode, itself- you said it was one of your favorite things you had made for the show up to that point. Very happy to hear that it remains so. Thank you!

Incidentally, give a try to the podcast "Well, There's Your Problem" here on RU-vid, about engineering failures.

I come from a family where everyone was a master of some trade. Carpenters, plumbers, masons, mechanics, and on and on. They all use the there's your problem phrase in the same way and it's always been hilarious to me. Especially when they pull that card out on something really obvious

I work in auto repair and because of Mythbusters I use that line all the time

I constantly use "well, there's your problem" and "i reject your reality and substitute my own" in my job. just a great line and totally recognizable line in the engineering world!

I'm only just catching up and binging on Tested. But in this episode I noticed that Adam was drinking my favourite soft drink/soda Bundaberg Ginger Beer and I know that during Mythbusters that he wore Blundstone boots. As an Aussie that makes me really happy.

When they blew up the cement truck. HOLY SHNCNNCJ!!! I literally just stared at the TV, jaw hanging open. Because I was expecting it to blow up. What I WASN'T expecting, was for that entire truck to be completely, and thoroughly OBLITERATED and dissappear from sight. The sound it made wasn't even a BOOM. It almost sounded like a laser. And it was just........ Gone. Wasn't there anymore. Like it ceased to exist on a molecular level. Entire cement truck..

I used to know a guy named Paul. He was a gruff, crusty, stoic oldtimer who'd worked with his hands all his life and pretty much ruined his body in the process. Hell of a good guy, though - he'd move heaven and earth to help a friend, and everybody was a friend. (As a digression, he built this amazing network of people all helping each other out just by hijacking one of us for a day to go do errands or fix things.) He liked "well there's your problem" a lot, but his go-to was to look at some thoroughly destroyed piece of equipment and drawl "Heat'll do that." Even when you knew it was coming, it was hysterical every time. He's been gone a few years now. I miss him.

This simply is just awesome, happy to say that showing my son mythbusters when he was 7yrs old was just one of the easiest and best decisions of my adult life. He’s 10 now, and he loves your show and we watch tested together, the imagination and enthusiasm that you approach every aspect of your interest of the day or your builds just ignites his imagination. Can not stress this enough, Thank you Adam and everyone that worked on mythbusters and tested.

Why did I think this was related to the Well there's your problem podcast somehow lmao.

It's still crazy to me to think that my brother and I had been watching Mythbusters for almost the entirely of our childhood. We still hold it near and dear to our hearts.. But when in doubt, C4!!

I remember the tree log cannon episode. When they blew it up, they had a camera right beside cannon and the explosion was so big, it didn't look real to me. It was insane. I loved mythbusters. I learned so much, much more than what I learned in school in my science classes haha.

awesome memories. My favorite moments in Myth Busters History are the teachable moments where you had a near miss (thankfully never more than that) and learned from it and then fundamentally shifted the entire program to new and much more stringent safety measures. Thank you, all of you (Myth Busters teams) for the effort you put yourselves through to learn and improve on all accounts, including safety. We are all much better for it to this day. I myself now, if I ever have a moment where I would have to do anything SLIGHTLY dangerous or involving fire, explosives, etc... will be calling in the cavalry (first responders, fbi whatever) before EVER even getting into the rest of the planning stages.

Jamie's explosion treasures reminded that when I was 16 or so, there was a huge thunderstorm and me, my best friend, and my younger sister were all in the living room with the curtains on the very large window open so we could watch the storm. We had all the lights off and electronics unplugged because there was a lot of lightning and it was hitting very close. Suddenly, lightning struck directly beside the house, just off to the side of the window. The entire room filled with blue-white light and everyone dove for cover as best as they could. The next day, my dad and I went out to see if we could find where the bolt hit. There was too much debris on the ground to see anything there, but we found a piece of a berry bush that had been burned by the lightning hitting it. Dad clipped it off and had it in the garage for years.

I LOVE that revolver with the target insted of a barrel, so totaly cool when you know the story/myth behind it! And as a former targetshooter it really hit home, I´m slightly biased... 😁

Picture from the thumbnail: Well that looks like a piston and connecting rod out of the air compressor that was engine driven for the air brakes of the cement truck. Crazy how powerful that explosion was to dismantle that without any tools and in a split second. This show made me love mechanics. And now I’m a heavy duty mechanic 😃

I'm from Queensland, Australia and proud to see Adam drinking Bundaberg Ginger Beer.

I don't know if it was really a catchphrase or saying on the show, but I appreciated the "what *would* it take to make that happen" portion of the show that often happened. Because it's one thing to say "this doesn't have enough force to do that, so your blender/water heater/gas tank/whatever is perfectly safe" which is what manufacturers tell us all the time before their thing blows up and gets recalled. It's another thing entirely to watch a team go to great lengths to make something happen; and then to realize that it is, indeed, very difficult to make happen and gives a reasonable idea of just how unlikely it would be, and even what factors are especially important to prevent it. It's far more informative that way than just stopping at the end of a myth and saying "that's it, you were silly to believe blenders could explode!"

"Well there's yer problem!" Started out an Automechanic's joke, usually when pointing out something painfully obvious.

Safety is so often underrated, until it is too late. So important to learn from your mistakes (and preferably from the mistakes others have already made before you).

Which is your favorite saying from MythBusters? Thank you Nick, Micah and Tony for your questions! These questions were answered during our Dec. 7 live stream; join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions: ru-vid.com/show-UCiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOAjoin

I have often used this line in posts. It is a gem. The funniest thing Jamie ever said, IMO, was in the episode when you were testing if duck quacks echoed. And he was holding a duck and it was silent. And he in his usual flat voice said, "Quack, damn you." :D

Well...Welcome to Well, There's Your Problem, a podcast about engineering disasters....with slides

Love that Adam isn't even holding a gun, just a handle and still has the trigger discipline not to put his finger on the nonexistent trigger.

I do love how, like me, Adam has multiple empty bottles of Bundaberg Ginger Beer on his desk. Side note, has anyone else had their spiced ginger beer? It's wonderful stuff

"Well, there's your problem..." is the punch line from an old joke told by engineering students. People are in line to be executed by guillotine in the French Revolution. There was supposedly a law that if the guillotine malfunctioned, it was considered divine intervention and you were released. The guillotine stopped a few inches above the neck of about 3 people in a row. In line to be executed next was an engineer who saw it all. He looked up at the rope, pointed to a knot that was jamming the device and said, "Well, there's your problem." In my mind, whenever Adam said that on the show, I always thought he was referring to that old joke, and I loved that!

Tree Cannon was my favorite. Ya'll tried to adhere to tools of the time and I really appreciate that. And that "cannon ball" Jamie made by hand? I was mad ya'll fired that that out of there. That was a work of art.

The cement mixer explosion is my favorite I remember jumping when I saw it on TV. ❤

Wow do I miss mythbusters. I'm a fabricator and I just loved seeing all you guys work! What expertise!

I think we all love that quote because it is so relatable. Im sure most of us have come across a tradesperson or mechanic that points out something so glaringly obvious and says totally seriously “well theres your problem”.

My experience of "Well, there's your problem" goes back to a New Yorker cartoon by Edward Koren. A man has brought his car to the shop and the mechanic has the hood up. In place of the engine sits a small furry monster, smiling mischievously. The mechanic is the one speaking. Perhaps you were reminded of this?

I'm glad to see you are still doing well. I used to run a worldwide gaming group. Whenever Mythbusters came on, we all stopped what we were doing and watched the show together in our own homes, while talking on over a VoIP server.. To this day We'll, there's your problem" is one of my favorite lines. I still say it once in a while.

the one that stands out for me in terms of your reaction was when you blew up the water heater

That stand in pistol is such an elegant and simple solution to how you'd even practically recreate the force of a bullet impact. That's such a great piece from the show to remember!

That’s a crazy bong behind Adam

"I reject your reality and substitute my own" was my personal favorite line from the opening intro

You reminded me of why I love my old mountain bike; your mention of the trauma associated with your sculpture making it a "perfect object" reminded me of when it literally tore skin from the back of my hand during an accident. Even then, I got back on that bike and kept going before the staples even came out.

Man Mythbusters has so much nostalgia for me. My late teens early 20s, I absolutely loved mythbusters

"Well there's your problem" is a line Jim Varney said in an ad. "That's the second biggest..." is a catchphrase from Get Smart.

I work in IT as a sysadmin and I love throwing out "Well, there's your problem!" when we find the core of an issue. Always gets a laugh out of clients and teammates alike. Thanks Adam & crew for all the laughs and inspiration from the past, present, and future. Some Mythbusters quotes still live rent free in my head over a decade later.

Thankyou so much for doing what you do, you , Jamie and the team from mythbusters were a massive part of my childhood and made me realise that I wanted to go into engineering.

"Well there's your Problem" is great engineering disasters podcast on RU-vid. Liam can be a handful, but you learn to love them.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own."

Tory’s bicycle accident gets me every time. I knew it was coming, and even watching the rerun, it gets as well.

I really enjoyed the procedures we saw from when you blew stuff up. It is just satisfying to see how you do insane stuff in a well tought out manner

I used this line in the navy- but only when the problem is obvious to everyone in the room. (As if I’m the past one to realize what’s going on) It helped lighten the mood when things became stressful- thank you Adam.

"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage

I have to say that I love how genuine and happy adam is. many people try to be what they aren't, but I feel his emotions being true in his videos.

No, thank YOU Adam, for allowing us to watch hours of hilarious and educational videos. I shall watch more

I love how the title gets you interested and the video goes straight to it. Unlike other people’s titles that hide it in the video or at the end. I watch the whole video of yours because it is all fascinating and interesting, unlike most people’s videos that are only interesting for that one singular thing.

The "Am I missing an eyebrow?" line is STILL one of my favorite lines! I saw someone wearing t-shirt that had the line on it at a comic book store. 👍

"quack, damn you!" & "when in doubt, C4." are my just *SOME* of my favorites

one of my favorites is when they were testing myths from spy movies and they were trying to climb up an air duct and jaime was using magnets and they were like the loudest things ever so adam goes "thor the god of thunder is trying to empty my building"

The tree cannon exploding is such a cinematic shot it is still stuck in my head

For a solid half a second, my brain thought Adam was gonna talk about the podcast "well there's your problem"

I was completely hooked on the show from episode one. With Buster sitting on that toilet, lit cigarette in hand, and track suit burning. I cried, I laughed so hard.

Adam. You are an inspiration. Loved seeing you at brain candy here in Brisbane and love seeing the bundaberg in your videos... it is truly the greatest drink ever.

Besides the cannonball, the tree cannon was by far the scariest incident, and it never really got the on-show safety reassessment that it felt like it deserved. Good to hear that did happen behind the scenes.

Number one way to loose a finger at work. Pointing to the problem.

i love using your " i reject your reality and substitute my own" line. its clever and witty and you would be surprised at how many people really just dont get it.

I remember my favorite myth they tested was when they tested their own blast Shields because when they were first introduced them Jamie said something along the lines of they could stop a rifle or a bullet or some othe thing along those lines and then when they went to test it after using them years later and found out it didn't stop near what they thought it did and had to upgrade.

i absolutely love the big aluminum "gun" too. it's so simple and yet super iconic!

It's one of those lines I read in your voice before I even clicked to play the video

My favorite line that evoked laughter in the Maintenance Blacksmith shop here at Colonial Williamsburg was, "I have an Idea". I was the newest in the shop back then, and the senior guys would laugh. Funny thing was, it worked, most every time.

Does he know that there's an engineering disaster podcast (with slides) that uses that line as its name?

We used to say that in the Air Force whenever something went catastrophically wrong in order to make light of very serious situations. In the late 80's, when a load crew chief was sucked through the intake of an F-16 at the end-of-runway, and while we some of us were looking on in disbelief, a paramedic peering into the turbine to begin retrieval looks over at us and says, "Well, here's your problem." Somehow, after that we were able to move on and continue the mission. We had lost someone close, but due to a little levity we could continue living ourselves.

I think the worst "near miss" to my recollection on Myth Busters was the time the team 'pranked' Adam with the elctro-shock golden birds... Never seen him more disappointed.

I think one of the best moments was the alcatraz myth. Adam is hammering incredibly loudly, stops says "is that a guard? No..." BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! I burst out laughing