The Paper Crossbow Experiment! | Season 4 Episode 5 | Full Episode

Adam and Jamie explore a myth about a prisoner crafting a crossbow out of everyday items.
Using science as a tool, Hollywood special effects experts attempt to debunk rumours, urban legends and popular myths that have captivated the minds of many individuals.
#MythBusters #FactOrFiction

[@p529.]

I'm so glad these are ending up on KZbin. Thanks a lot guys

[@ColinBFClarke]

They fucked over a lot of people who purchased these shows

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

@@ColinBFClarke what like 2 decades ago ? 🤣🤣

[@ColinBFClarke]

@@girlsdrinkfeck you don't seem smart enough to comprehend theft

[@aidanwelch4763]

For some reason they're not accessible in the US. Maybe because of HBO Max

[@aidanwelch4763]

@@banhatlessducks Interesting, so that channel bought the license(at least in some countries)?

[@IneptOrange]

Thank you so much for releasing these instead of locking them behind a Hulu membership or something

[@Zorothegallade-gg7zg]

If you find a bee nest near your house, contact a nearby farmer or beekeeper to come pick it up. Bees are a precious resource and both the farmers and the bees will be thankful if the nest is moved where bees can live properly and receive the right care.

[@Zonyxe]

Yeah, this myth/episode did not age well. Making light of just going out to kill bees is pretty terrible, given what we know these days

[@borntoclimb7116]

Yes

[@najssiness]

Yeah I was thinking that this really didnt age well

[@IneptOrange]

Yeah I felt pretty weird about that one. I love bees :(

[@ninasayswhat]

The bees you’ll find making nests are unlikely to be honey bees - and honey bees (contrary to popular belief) can actually harm local and wider bee species*, they’re essentially livestock. Call a removal dude not a farmer, and don’t use weed killer, leave the area and leave areas of bare soil to help bees.

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

One of my favorite episodes, mainly because I'm still impressed by the inmates for ingenuity of creating weapons (most especially the plumbing gun).

[@chriscreaturo8809]

Vernell sounds so hyped when he’s explaining how big and vast the prison is

[@Dennis19901]

American prison system is entirely fucked. When you start to treat prisoners as commerce, you end up with America.

[@calumsanderson6741]

@@Dennis19901 hate the system, not the person. Vernell's good people

[@Paveway-chan]

The inmates made an honest-to-Browning makeshift M3 Grease Gun 😂

[@kungfudavie]

Wonder if that was a semi automatic bolt action too

[@JamesChurchill3]

Semi auto because making it fully automatic would be illegal as an NFA item.

[@Foxtrott_4]

@@JamesChurchill3 uhm....

[@bambae7669]

@@kungfudavie seems unlikely that they would be able to make a functioning blowback mechanism with the limited tools, materials and testing available. Most guns made in confinement seem to be either fire once or single fire manual feed. However there are weapons in history that were specifically designed to be manufactured with limited machinery like the Błyskawica. Given that being able to manufacture and design functioning magazine fed gun from scratch would require significant experience as a gunsmith, the idea that one of these ex "freedom fighter" gunsmiths ended up in prison in the U.S and used their experience to craft a makeshift sub-machine gun in the prison workshop, doesn't sound that ridiculous at all.

[@Envy_Dragon]

@@JamesChurchill3 Oh no, if they made it full-auto they might end up going to jail or something!

[@ichiroutakashima4503]

Rewatching this series makes me really realize that Jamie has pretty much done it all, like, the guy is almost licensed on every single thing. Yet, only a few knows about it. He's really well accomplished.

[@ejo1996]

Jamie is that guy that everyone has heard of, but ideally, would never see.

[@jocax188723]

“Only a few know about it.” Exactly the way he wants it.

[@brandonmajor92]

Jamie was the brains,Jamie was the brawns haha

[@ichiroutakashima4503]

@@jocax188723 Which is actually very rare for humans. Most people want to get recognized, at least from my viewpoint, Jamie clearly was that "the quiet guy in the room you don't want to mess with".

[@grahamsong4585]

Even pest cat exterminator 😂

[@jbmi5342]

I was a part of a touring dance company for a while, and the costume team used vodka in spray bottles to keep the costumes smelling fresh. Really did work! There's not enough time to was 50 costumes on a nightly basis, and it's also bad for the clothes in some cases. The cigarette smoke may have been a pretty heavy duty test, but I can vouch that vodka is pretty good with stinky clothes!

[@deadsomethingdoggo9643]

22:27 "Generally I would prefer more" this one left me gagging knowing that everyone around him knows what hes really talking about.

[@LootableCorpse]

Gagging at a penetration joke? What planet are you from?

[@girafmad]

So what is he takling about?

[@zoutewand]

​@@girafmad I think the person you replied to just meant the actual joke? Like yeah he's talking about sex that's why it's funny, I don't think there's anything deeper about it

[@Nope-w3c]

why is a simple double entendre such an issue?

[@ZeljkoZeljko-qo1vg]

🤣🤣🤣

[@NorwayT]

31:53 - I'm not sure if this is the case with Honeybees, but living in the Arctic, I remember being stunned by the Graduate Course in Forensic Entymology I took in Uni. It turned out that many, indeed all of the Insects that lasts the Arctic Winter, produces frost fluids in their blood, often diluted with ethanol or other alcohols. The bee is one such insect. Bees are busy, even in the winter, keeping the Queen warm. They eat honey, clump together around her and flap their wings, producing heat with their wing muscles. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they also thinned their blood viscosity with ethanol. Beekeepers know that bees have a high tolerance to alcohol, and if they indeed do fill their bloodstream with that in the winter like other insects, they would need to have such a tolerance. Great MythBusters Episode!

[@johnquirk4896]

I never knew Mythbusters was aired on the BBC! Thanks for the uploads😊

[@bijibadness]

so rad, life can be. first of all - Rest In Peace, Grant. we love you, we miss you, man. thanks for all the laughs and learns. the show would not have been the same nor as good without all your contributions. thanks so much for that. second of all, I don't know Pinball machines, but 14:45 that laundromat's got the good stuff. just from casual pinball gaming on PS4, I was able to easily recognize two of those machines that were reproduced in Pinball FX3 - the one farthest right is the affable and pretty neat Road Crew machine by Williams ... I forget the actual name. it's a fine machine. one of the characters is voiced by Reba McEntire. but the machine in the _middle_ is the ONE -- that's _Mediaval Madness,_ also by Williams, and it's often called one of the best pinball machine ever made. I've played FX3's recreation of that table, I even once played one in real life. it's the best. I really recommend trying pinball sometime if you're interested in gaming. it's a wholly different feel and phenomena from digital games -- you're banking on actual gravity and physics to get your score, and the whole playfield was painstakingly designed, crafted and CONSTRUCTED. it's a really very cool cultural artifact, pinball is. and if I've learned anything from even just casual perusal of the game, it's that Williams is the best, apparently. laff. I just thought that was neat. a totally virtual collection of real tables on PS4 that are actually out there in the wild, and now caught in the background of an episode of _Mythbusters._ so like I said, so rad, life can be. be well everyone.

[@eenayeah]

One of my favorite episodes. The crossbows are so memorable.

[@Lagbeard]

The biggest problem with the crossbows is really how the heck would anyone manage to hide those in a prison cell.

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

If you possess the ingenuity to make the thing, you'd be able to figure out a way to keep it out of sight.

[@sparrowflyaway]

It's paper. So long as you keep it dismantled and hide the pieces around your cell until you intend to actually use it, it's unlikely to get entirely confiscated for being a weapon - and even if they do take a piece, you can just get more paper and remake it.

[@crelos3549]

Same argument could be made with a bunch of other real weapons people have created in prison

[@Lagbeard]

@@sparrowflyaway You can't exactly unglue the parts to dismantle it.

[@captainchaos3053]

Well with all the rampant bum love that goes on perhaps they hide it up the boyfriends exhaust?

[@josephkarl2061]

12:22 "Oh honey!" Kari has seen some things 😂

[@calumsanderson6741]

Vernell is a bit serious but my god I can tell he cares so much about this information and position in society. We are a better society for having people like him - and I don't mean because of his job/association with prisons, I mean someone who's learned and passionate about their career. it's unfortunately rare.

[@michaeldurling250]

I like that Grants inmate number is Pi. Lol

[@liolp808]

Jamie browsing underwear killed me!

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

Hahahaha they got so much San Fran Chinese newspapers to make the crossbow! When the camera zoom in I can pause and read the community news twenty years ago lol

[@Schmorgus]

So that's what it was! xD I got so confused why it was covered with Asian letters!

[@benjiv5070]

What did it say?

[@cejannuzi]

If you can make glue, then you can make paper mache', which would be more rigid than their constructions.

[@richardmontegue3131]

But you lose flexibility, which is key in a crossbow

[@richardmontegue3131]

But then you lose flexibility

[@Si74l0rd]

Yeah I was surprised that for all the brains and consultants, there was no mention of water sticks. Not so much for the props, but for the rest of the frame and the parts where you need the rigidity. Water sticks are the easiest to make and most common prison weapon, along with shivs. You're returning wood pulp to a more solid state, with sufficient compression you get something akin to particle board, and there are plenty of home crossbow builds using that.

[@maxinehardy9411]

@@Si74l0rd do you have any more information on water sticks? it sounds interesting but i didnt have any luck on google.

[@Si74l0rd]

@@maxinehardy9411 I don't, I hit Google just before making this comment and was surprised to also find no mention of it, despite having seen a lot of American prison documentaries featuring them, and having seen footage of prisoners soaking magazines in a basin to get them ready for moulding into their final form. But no details on the intermediate steps as to how you go about moulding and drying it out etc. Clearly there's some form of compression, and presumably some sort of fixative substance to turn the pulp into something more or less resembling a solid, but the details elude me. My best guess is that it was more common in the nineties, and has faded from the public consciousness. A lot of nineties things have no internet reference, despite being relatively recent, and I could have seen it at any point in the last thirty some years, I'm not good at time stamping the information in my brain!

[@ryanwatts7817]

A moments silence for all the bees😢🫡

[@Schmorgus]

All 2 of them.

[@ryanwatts7817]

@@Schmorgus tbf I typed this before we saw the results and the revival

[@SweWince]

Regarding the crossbow, I think the methos to use would be to re-harden the newspapers into wood through compression and then build a regular crossbow?

[@thijsdeboer389]

20:33 that scale looks vaguely familiar.....

[@bathbomber]

The ingenuity of prisoners shows why Australia hits so far above it's weight in creativity and science.

[@lukeowen3072]

Are you referring to Billy Hunt?

[@bokimalou]

Oh yes, my favorite show, Master Chef UK where they bust cooking myths.

[@borntoclimb7116]

I Love those old Episodes. Thanks you.

[@benjaminbotley]

21:47 “That’s what she said!”

[@ashleyd9310]

i love it when they go to some specific person (crossbow dealer, beekeepers, etc) to get something for a myth and then they ask them about the myth and that person is always like "uhhhh.....no i guess"

[@Nope-w3c]

No way! Full episodes?! That's SO cool!

[@MrMarinus18]

Crossbows are often underestimated in their power. A crossbow has more power than a full power rifle does.

[@mocko69]

Killing bees purposefully and so cheerfully would NEVER make it on TV in 2024 lol

[@rafael_lana]

I give it 10 years for people being against using paper.

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

MythBusters also used pig carcasses a lot. That "meat man" crushed in diving suit one was particularly gruesome lol

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

i think you're forgetting the existence of hells kitchen and Survivor, the latter of which frequently features contestants killing animals to feed themselves.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@rafael_lana people still eat veal, despite it being tortured baby cows. paper isn't going away, nor are the killing of small animals.

[@rafael_lana]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 I never said it was going away, I said people would start complaining about it. More than 12 bees probably died of old age in that hive during the segment on that bee farm. Taking a handful of worker bees for science from a healthy colony is completely inconsequential. It's like cutting a branch from a big tree. People need to chill

[@Cultureghost]

A crossbow (or bow in general) gets its energy from the tension of its arms, not the elasticity of its string. What they made is technically a slingshot shaped like a crossbow.

[@Davross-420]

Vernell seems like a cool dude 😂

[@ndingo]

3:25 Those prison made weapons are kind of creepy

[@EsteemedReptile]

Jamies "yaaay" gives me life

[@kingnothing3964]

I am absolutely eating these episodes up

[@JonatasAdoM]

For some reason I only got to watch this episode much later on the internet.

[@GodlikeIridium]

45:00 From Red Baron to drem catcher... Dude is really Savage 😂

[@bishopsteiner7134]

"Semi automatic, bolt action"..... California doing California things (born and raised there, and well, SoCal and the Bay Area are pretty damn firearms ignorant as a rule). Perhaps he meant "magazine fed, bolt action", as in a repeater?

[@rhysgriffiths9675]

I can certainly imagine one of these being lethal, especially with some strong elastic bands, crossbow limbs made from plastic + strengthened with paper/fabric, a sharper tip, and a bolt poisoned with faeces/detergent etc. Those factors could easily double the effectiveness. And on first appearance it would look like it was made from paper.

[@watosmate8935]

Swear jamie and adam always get the best myths

[@brettjarvs7458]

It is their show.

[@Kolfonik]

You mean the original stars of the show?

[@watosmate8935]

@@brettjarvs7458 may get too pick

[@luismaldonado1494]

@14:24 "A quick product test" LOL

[@swedichboy1000]

Another iconic episode.

[@343RuinedHalo]

1. Hard paper tube with the diameter not more than your average toilet roll tube. 2. Find a Balloon with good Elasticity & Rubber Strength. 3. Cut the "neck" of the Balloon where the diameter is similar to the Hard Paper Tube's diameter, Tread it on and Tape them together. You now have a Deadly weapon that has more power, easier and faster to make than these paper crossbows.

[@demonicravergaming.4766]

In maximum we had a guitar available. No metal cutlery only plastic (at the time i was in, now it would most likely be paper) i used to use the plastic knives to make guitar pics im surorised i wasn't pulled up on it

[@Pedro-tl7jg]

that bolty is straight out of Rust damn

[@Zorothegallade-gg7zg]

Like in KSP, when in doubt add more struts.

[@demonicravergaming.4766]

On behalf of all laundry rooms, please do not wash anything in those machines you wouldn't wash in your own at home

[@mavrick8181]

No I wash extra heavy stuff and things I don’t wanna wash at home there

[@ChrisBlackTV]

So many innuendos in this single episode, they sure were able to get away with way more back then 😂

[@drewb427]

2:24 Saul Goodman’s car parked out front 😂

[@realghoststories1210]

The bee killer thing didn't age well. Considering bees are now being endangered.

[@colinofay7237]

It was only 12 of them, and honey bees aren't endangered. I don't like the idea of killing them, but people in the comments should chill out

[@d4slaimless]

@@colinofay7237 It wasn't even 12. Actually died only 2. No idea what they did with those that remained alive tho.

[@martin09091989]

The beekeepers are definitely are good old hippies, and might have much more going on then vodka! 😂

[@SeriousApache]

You see, Ivan, vodka is a multitool.

[@krokodil191]

22:26 😂😂

[@r3stl3sstoo]

this is my favorite episode of masterchef UK

[@AskanHelstroem]

15:00 German surrealist painter: Unica Zürn

[@David-hi9rp]

Finally you have fixed the sound bloody hell finally

[@kailebcooke3193]

Someone making a gun in prison is WILD

[@salihnu]

Fun fact, in nature a drunk bee gets exiled or killed by the hive which usually ends in its death before it can sober up.

[@eegleweege]

shooting the arrow into grant's cast right into the nostril, that's much like him having straws in his nose when making the cast !!!

[@GodlikeIridium]

38:00 That didn't age well... RIP Grant... We all miss you, you left to soon 😢

[@justjones5430]

For the crossbow I would've tried to make a laminated bow from paper, glue & fabric and use that as part of the power delivery. 😊

[@Lrofmaulol]

I dislike how they changed from "killing bees" to "it's a repellent" when they talked to the beekeepers. I disliked the whole premise tbh. You don't kill bees.

[@richardmontegue3131]

Honey bees aren’t the important ones, millions are bread each year on farms and such

[@Lrofmaulol]

@@richardmontegue3131 I didn't say anything about honey bees specifically

[@richardmontegue3131]

@@Lrofmaulol the bees they killed were honey bees, not important

[@Lrofmaulol]

@@richardmontegue3131 Thanks for repeating yourself instead of addressing the point.

[@kikixchannel]

@@richardmontegue3131 All bees are important. Each and every single one. There are some plants that can only be pollinated by just one or two specific types of insects. You just don't kill bees, unless it's absolutely necessary. Bees also rarely sting humans. And most of the times they do, they do so because the humans did something to deserve those stings. After all, stinging a large creature like a human for a bee has a high risk of them dying, pulling out their guts out of their bodies.

[@TheOrijinalPajeet]

they fucked it up with the adhesive, the best adhesive is melted plastic from cups and similar.

[@alexwaldrum742]

Rest in Pjeace Grant, God speed

[@adam346]

Confirmed Jamie is a serial-killer? They always start with small animals...

[@jubuttib]

3:43 "semi-automatic bolt-action" These are mutually exclusive tho, and I'm surprised they'd make a semi-automatic when making a full auto is easier (no auto-sears etc. needed, just let the bolt cycle).

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

False. Most rifles are semi-automatic and bolt-action. Semi-automatic is related to firing. "Action" is related to the method which the chamber is loaded (break action, bolt-action, pump-action, slide-action, etc).

[@mackiri6996]

Vernell was cold 😂😂😂😂

[@whalahiguy]

3:38 Semi-Automatic, Bolt Action..?? which is it

[@xcoder1122]

Normal bees don't sting unless their live is in danger or they think you are attacking the hive or the queen. The reason for this is that a bee can typically only sting once in its life, and if you can only attack once, you better make it count. Under normal circumstances, a bee has no interest in stinging you and losing its life for nothing. Why should it? A bee's first priority is to protect the queen and the hive, so it is absolutely willing to give its life for this goal. And the second priority is to protect the other bees of the hive from being killed, so if something threatens their life (another animal trying to kill or eat them), they will sting, which seems pointless at first because it won't save their life either (instead of getting killed, they just killed themselves), but it might hurt the attacker and thus save the lives of other bees. All of this is true even for the "Africanized bee" (aka "killer bee"), which is not a natural species at all, but an artificial breed created by humans. And as is often the case when we mess with nature, the results are problematic. This bee, too, will only sting in self-defense, but through artificial breeding, it has been made super aggressive, meaning that pretty much any living creature in the vicinity of the hive is considered an attacker. In an attempt to create a more effective honey bee, we just created a very aggressive one that basically overreacts to situations that other bees would consider harmless. And don't confuse bees with wasps. Wasps can sting multiple times in their lives, so not only will wasps sting to protect their hive or in self-defense, they will sting whenever something makes them feel threatened or in a fight over resources, even trying to push them away from your food could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

[@skyborne80]

The smoke box looks like Yul Brynner's bedroom 🤣

[@freshfishonly]

one of the best episodes

[@aleksandrh.4251]

10:30 Vodka is a Poland invented beverage, AFAIK.

[@EmoTheElephant]

so did the beekeeprs know what you were actually intending to do with the bees? Back at base it was all "does vodka kill bees?" but when talking to the beekeepers it suddenly switched to "bee repellant"

[@michalanckoronski2673]

@38:21 hope someone noticed that inmate's Imahara prison number is Pi (3.1415...)

[@youruberhasarrived2081]

4:42 They even got Steve Harvey to do some talking

[@minmb82]

The beekeepers were high as fuck

[@fxopl6041]

" Hey guys are you guys willing to give us your bees so we can make them drunk or probably kill them?" Well sure!

[@calumsanderson6741]

Incidentally, "Big Butch Strands" is the name of my grunge band

[@heret1c385]

wow this one is fresh of the press, I didn't even notice

[@Nagria2112]

a balck bear? you sure about that? maybe a head/heart shot but if you hit him in the arm you gonna have a very angry bear.

[@DeathLine971]

The vodka trick with bees actually work but u have to spray at them. My theory is that alcohol sucks the water out of them and they die very quickly. I use this trick to kill all types of bugs

[@DeathLine971]

Sry correction i use propyl alcohol

[@Drekulviin]

Now grow tomatoes with Vodka and get drunk eating Spaghetti.

[@sumatra6738]

R.I.P. Grant Imahara 13. Juli 2020

[@Swingingbells]

It's the alcohol fumes that are lethal to insects. I think the test box was too well ventilated.

[@AlibifortheAfterlife]

Even as a little kid it always drove me insane how they said "we have to build a crossbow to be accurate to the myth" and yet the weapon the myth describes isn't a crossbow. By definition, a bow of any sort gets its power from the limbs, not the string, and the myth talked about using elastic.

[@hamishwhitehenderson5197]

I like Adam's Hunter S Thompson t-shirt.

[@FreeMaria]

Don't like that they're trying to kill bees.

[@kristjanp.6613]

Interesting detail: the imaginary inmate's number at 38:17 is pi, 3.1415927

[@Luzarioth]

37:14 That thing reminds me of a Cylone Basestar ^^*

[@sandremo1569]

NO NOT THE BEEEEES!

[@Baron-Ortega]

Vernell seemed like a cool guy

[@MalteEgon]

Poor little bees! 😢

[@jaybee9716]

Did Hyneman make a joke about killing cats with a crossbow? That's Dahmer fucked up.

[@keithfish1957]

Everybody don’t just use these episodes to go to sleep. Watch them b4 they are removed

[@fxopl6041]

Beekiller nr1 is still Breakcleaner

[@CarlSöderquist]

I would prefer if they werent mixed. First Jamie&Co to finish and then Tori&Co to finish. To messy with the mix back and forth.

[@adriansimi5051]

Built one of those,miss those days😞

[@vhwft]

2:00 the way he snatched the bow back, he was not impressed. These two have always seemed to have a bit of an off relationship

[@aspixenc]

That's what I thought too, from the way he grabbed his crossbow, like in his mind he said who gave you permission to grab my crossbow.

[@SinfullyHera]

Might be reading too far into it...

[@maltesefalcon85]

given we assume that the inmates had access to tools you could make a gnarly home made crossbow using pycrete and those materials

[@rjspires]

The bee vodka myth was broadcasted in the UK.