MacGyver in popular culture


MacGyver is an American television series that ran from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

MacGyverisms and "to MacGyver"

employs his resourcefulness and his knowledge of chemistry, physics, technology, and outdoorsmanship to resolve what are often life-or-death crises. He creates inventions from simple items to solve these problems. These inventions became synonymous with the character and were called MacGyverisms by fans. MacGyver was unlike secret agents in other television series and films because, instead of relying on high-tech weapons and tools, he carried only a Swiss Army knife and duct tape. This also led to the verb 'to MacGyver' or 'to MacGyver-ize'. 'MacGyverism' was first used by Joanne Remmings in the third episode of Season 2. When MacGyver introduces himself to her, she uses the term in a manner that suggests other people had used it before:

"Oh I've heard about you! You're the guy who does the whatchamacallits, you know, MacGyverisms; turns one thing into another?"

In 2007, the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live featured a parody of MacGyver called "MacGruber" with Will Forte as the title character. The intros for these skits featured scenes from the MacGyver series. MacGruber and cohorts are always locked in a control room of some type with a bomb set to go off in about 15–20 seconds. MacGruber has his costars hand him components to defuse the device, but MacGruber's personal issues inevitably get in the way of the operation, and the bomb detonates.
In a 2009 episode where Richard Dean Anderson guest stars as the original Angus MacGyver, MacGruber learns he is actually MacGyver's son and that "MacGruber" is in fact his first name.
The sketch was adapted as the 2010 film MacGruber.

''MythBusters''

In February 2008, the popular science show MythBusters featured a MacGyver special which tested several of MacGyver's tactics. The first test examined MacGyver's famous cold capsule bomb, which utilized the explosive reaction of alkali metals with water. Supposedly, dropping 1 gram of sodium metal into water will cause an explosive reaction powerful enough to blow a hole through a cinderblock wall. However, despite using 100 grams of sodium metal, the wall remained completely intact.
In the 2009 season, the MythBusters tested a scene from MacGyver's season 2 episode "The Wish Child," where MacGyver blew open a door lock by taking the gunpowder from a revolver's six cartridges and packing them together with a leftover primer that he detonated by striking it with the gun's butt. Not only did the MythBusters fail in setting off the primer, it also proved to be impossible to disassemble the cartridges by hand. Even after switching smokeless powder for black powder and fitting the revolver's butt with a firing pin for a successful detonation, the lock remained intact. A charge with 120 cartridges worth of black powder set off by electric igniter managed to destroy the lock, proving the concept, though due to the sheer amount of gunpowder needed and vastly surpassing MacGyver's methods and resources, the myth was declared busted.
However, some of MacGyver's tactics were confirmed. The MythBusters were able to pick a lock using the filament of an incandescent lightbulb, although it took the MythBusters considerably longer to do than it took MacGyver. Another "confirmed" MacGyver tactic was building an electromagnet using ordinary household batteries, tape and insulated wire
It was also implied, although it was not successfully tested, that it is possible to develop a roll of film using orange juice as an acid and ammonia as an alkaline fixer while holding a garbage bag over the setup to create a darkroom. Another implied, but not tested, tactic was creating a potato cannon using hairspray as a fuel, a camp stove as the ignition, and PVC pipe as the mortar.
Also, in Episode 15, in July 2004, a portion of the episode titled "Car Capers" featured the MythBusters testing of a tactic in which an egg placed into a car's radiator would subsequently cook and plug holes in said radiator. This had been featured in an episode of MacGyver titled "Bushmaster", and was originally an idea sent in by a fan. The myth was deemed plausible.
Grant Imahara humorously referred to MacGyver as 'the second greatest TV series of all time' in the 2006 season MythBusters episode 'Crimes and Myth-Demeanors 1'.