The Art of Duck Hunting with Pumpkin Heads: A Story of Humor and Dark Sense of Humor

I've been wanting to share this story with you for years, and finally, I have the chance. It's a tale of a pumpkin head hunting myth, where my friend, a hunter, tried to use a pumpkin as a disguise to sneak up on ducks. The idea was that since pumpkins were already floating around in the lake, the birds wouldn't even notice someone wearing one. My friend, who talks like Bill Murray, said "Oh yeah, you can get it right up to him, they don't even look at you." He even mentioned grabbing them by the feet and pulling them under, without them noticing.

I must admit that this was not how we planned to do it on the show. We wanted to work out a methodology that would not harm any of the birds. But my friend's image of duck "boop" and the other ducks just didn't seem to care, and I found it quite hilarious. This story has been on my mind for years, and we finally decided to film an episode about it.

To make this pumpkin head hunting myth a reality, I created a pumpkin that could be worn and swum with. I also built a remote control pumpkin camera, which allowed me to take a boat apart and put the propeller on a floating foam pumpkin. The camera inside the pumpkin captured footage in two or three directions, making it almost silent. We had this whole thing worked out, but unfortunately, we had to scrap the story.

It was during the last season of the show, and we were running out of space to film all the episodes. We had to make tough calls about which stories to prioritize, and sometimes it came down to whether a particular piece fit with the rest of our production. In this case, the pumpkin head hunting myth wasn't considered fat enough as a story.

One thing that I remember is that we were filming an episode where something unexpected happened, and it added 15 minutes to the episode. We had to cut one of our lighter stories to make room for the extra footage. That was this pumpkin head hunting myth. It still makes me chuckle, thinking about my friend's antics.

Now, I know what you're thinking - do Jaime's humor ever get out of hand? The truth is, his sense of humor is darker than people might think. He never sought to be funny for the sake of getting a laugh; he'd just say something because it was true. One example that stands out is when we were filming with ducks in our first season. We had 1500 baby ducks in a pen, and they were adorable. Jamie walks through this "cuteness carpet" of ducks and says, "Oh no, don't let their looks fool you; they're actually quite dangerous." That laugh still gives me chills to this day.

I've been meaning to try out the pumpkin head hunting myth again someday, but I promise that I'll do it without harming any birds. The idea is just too entertaining not to explore further. And who knows? Maybe one day, we'll get it right and make a funny episode about it.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody that's not my pet goose that is a stuffed goose that i have here in the cave um adam savage here in my cave and i'm answering questions today submitted by tested patrons uh on the subject of a little show i used to make called mythbusters and today's question is um michael roberts wants to know when you hear the phrase the one that got away what comes to mind oh mike i have an answer for you um there was a whole host of hunting and tracking myths that i always wanted to try on the show the idea that trackers could find people by putting their ear to the ground ear to the ground was one story we never did oh i really wished we had it's actually really cool because sound travels faster through rock than through the air and so it is true you can hear and sometimes identify how many people might be coming there are these uh native american trackers in the southwest that had actually agreed to work with us but it was a very difficult story to tell and it was going to cost a lot and i i think the network didn't have faith that was going to be thrilling enough which that happens that's fine um but uh there's also some really cool hunting myths and there's a story uh that uh i believe is attributed to uh uh native americans which is that native americans who wanted to uh hunt birds would start by in one specific location would float pumpkins out onto a pond on which ducks would land and get the ducks used to pumpkins floating around why well because when one of those native americans wanted to go hunting the ducks they would simply put take a pumpkin carve out a bottom put two eye holes in it put it over their head and swim out into the lake wearing this pumpkin head and the birds which were used to pumpkins floating around wouldn't even notice and actually a friend of mine who is a hunter who tried this he said oh yeah he said you can my friend talks a little like bill murray and i'm gonna do a terrible impression of him oh yeah he says uh you can get it right up to him yeah they don't even look at you and you can like he said you can grab them by the feet and pull them under boop and the other dunks he said won't even notice this was not how we were going to do it on the show just to be clear we were going to work out a methodology that would not harm any of the birds but i find his image of the duck boop and the other ducks like not even noticing freaking hilarious this was a story that i've wanted to do for years and years and years and in the last season of the show uh we actually went fairly far down the path towards filming that uh in fact i not only made a pumpkin head that i could wear and swim with uh and be neutrally buoyant but i also made a remote control pumpkin camera i took a boat and i took it apart and put the propeller on a floating foam pumpkin and had a camera inside gopros looking i think in two or three directions so you could drive it around and it was almost totally silent oh yeah no we had this whole thing worked out unfortunately unfortunately we had to we had to scrap the story it was a location shoot and really it was during the last few weeks of the last season so this is the fall of of 2015 yeah wow five years ago now it's the fall of 2015 um that we were running out of space to film all the episodes we had to film and we had this call to make which frequently got made of like well between this story and that story it's got to be this story uh between this piece and that piece between this location and that location sometimes it wasn't about the story itself it was about how that story fit in with the rest of our production and i think that's very specifically where this one went is it was not a fat enough story and oh yeah now i remember it what happened was what had happened was was we were filming an episode in which something happened we did not expect and it was so spectacular it added like 15 minutes to the episode i wish i could remember what it was uh it might have been tanker car implosion because that's one where that story was way fatter than we intended because it was way more difficult than we knew to get a tanker car to implode but because of the extra footage we got from the thing going wrong we had to toss one of our lightweight not even a b story like a c story and that was this pumpkin head hunting myth i still want to test it someday i might even if i test it in the future i still won't harm any ducks don't get me wrong they're delicious but i'm not going to personally harm any of them you sorry that just reminds me of a lot of people wonder what jaime's sense of humor is truly like and the thing that you should know about jaime is that a sense of humor is way darker than you might think it is but when you think about it you realize yeah don't that's a dude with a dark sense of humor um and the thing was that he never was funny to get the laugh he would just say something funny because he knew it was funny but he didn't really care about getting a laugh so that meant sometimes he would say things and they were so surpassingly funny you like almost couldn't breathe and one of them happened when we were filming with ducks in the very first season we were doing ducks quack won't echo and we're in this pen full of like 1500 baby ducks which is like a cuteness carpet man and they're walking around everywhere and jamie who grew up on a farm and was always ours like animal expert no look we hired experts but jamie was also oh you know i rode a horse oh we had cows yeah so you know we would trust the things he would say and he turns to us at some point he's walking through this cute carpet of baby ducks and he goes oh no don't don't let their looks fool you they're actually quite dangerous and that laugh is how i will wrap this up thank you so much for that awesome question yeah duck hunting is the one that got away from me and like i said someday i may do it tested patrons keep submitting your questions and everybody i will keep answering them in this format thank you so much and i will see you next time stay safehey everybody that's not my pet goose that is a stuffed goose that i have here in the cave um adam savage here in my cave and i'm answering questions today submitted by tested patrons uh on the subject of a little show i used to make called mythbusters and today's question is um michael roberts wants to know when you hear the phrase the one that got away what comes to mind oh mike i have an answer for you um there was a whole host of hunting and tracking myths that i always wanted to try on the show the idea that trackers could find people by putting their ear to the ground ear to the ground was one story we never did oh i really wished we had it's actually really cool because sound travels faster through rock than through the air and so it is true you can hear and sometimes identify how many people might be coming there are these uh native american trackers in the southwest that had actually agreed to work with us but it was a very difficult story to tell and it was going to cost a lot and i i think the network didn't have faith that was going to be thrilling enough which that happens that's fine um but uh there's also some really cool hunting myths and there's a story uh that uh i believe is attributed to uh uh native americans which is that native americans who wanted to uh hunt birds would start by in one specific location would float pumpkins out onto a pond on which ducks would land and get the ducks used to pumpkins floating around why well because when one of those native americans wanted to go hunting the ducks they would simply put take a pumpkin carve out a bottom put two eye holes in it put it over their head and swim out into the lake wearing this pumpkin head and the birds which were used to pumpkins floating around wouldn't even notice and actually a friend of mine who is a hunter who tried this he said oh yeah he said you can my friend talks a little like bill murray and i'm gonna do a terrible impression of him oh yeah he says uh you can get it right up to him yeah they don't even look at you and you can like he said you can grab them by the feet and pull them under boop and the other dunks he said won't even notice this was not how we were going to do it on the show just to be clear we were going to work out a methodology that would not harm any of the birds but i find his image of the duck boop and the other ducks like not even noticing freaking hilarious this was a story that i've wanted to do for years and years and years and in the last season of the show uh we actually went fairly far down the path towards filming that uh in fact i not only made a pumpkin head that i could wear and swim with uh and be neutrally buoyant but i also made a remote control pumpkin camera i took a boat and i took it apart and put the propeller on a floating foam pumpkin and had a camera inside gopros looking i think in two or three directions so you could drive it around and it was almost totally silent oh yeah no we had this whole thing worked out unfortunately unfortunately we had to we had to scrap the story it was a location shoot and really it was during the last few weeks of the last season so this is the fall of of 2015 yeah wow five years ago now it's the fall of 2015 um that we were running out of space to film all the episodes we had to film and we had this call to make which frequently got made of like well between this story and that story it's got to be this story uh between this piece and that piece between this location and that location sometimes it wasn't about the story itself it was about how that story fit in with the rest of our production and i think that's very specifically where this one went is it was not a fat enough story and oh yeah now i remember it what happened was what had happened was was we were filming an episode in which something happened we did not expect and it was so spectacular it added like 15 minutes to the episode i wish i could remember what it was uh it might have been tanker car implosion because that's one where that story was way fatter than we intended because it was way more difficult than we knew to get a tanker car to implode but because of the extra footage we got from the thing going wrong we had to toss one of our lightweight not even a b story like a c story and that was this pumpkin head hunting myth i still want to test it someday i might even if i test it in the future i still won't harm any ducks don't get me wrong they're delicious but i'm not going to personally harm any of them you sorry that just reminds me of a lot of people wonder what jaime's sense of humor is truly like and the thing that you should know about jaime is that a sense of humor is way darker than you might think it is but when you think about it you realize yeah don't that's a dude with a dark sense of humor um and the thing was that he never was funny to get the laugh he would just say something funny because he knew it was funny but he didn't really care about getting a laugh so that meant sometimes he would say things and they were so surpassingly funny you like almost couldn't breathe and one of them happened when we were filming with ducks in the very first season we were doing ducks quack won't echo and we're in this pen full of like 1500 baby ducks which is like a cuteness carpet man and they're walking around everywhere and jamie who grew up on a farm and was always ours like animal expert no look we hired experts but jamie was also oh you know i rode a horse oh we had cows yeah so you know we would trust the things he would say and he turns to us at some point he's walking through this cute carpet of baby ducks and he goes oh no don't don't let their looks fool you they're actually quite dangerous and that laugh is how i will wrap this up thank you so much for that awesome question yeah duck hunting is the one that got away from me and like i said someday i may do it tested patrons keep submitting your questions and everybody i will keep answering them in this format thank you so much and i will see you next time stay safe\n"