Dont Try This At Home / Live-Action TV

It's very common in Live-Action TV series to get the point across to the audience to NEVER try ANY of what you see on TV at home!

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• Common on children's game shows:
  • As the premise of Finders Keepers was ransacking rooms (often involving breaking things) to find hidden objects, something home viewers might think they could easily imitate, the hosts, particularly Wesley Eure, would take great pains to point out that the prop plates, vases, etc. in the house were made of easily breakable clay rather than more durable glass or ceramic, and that the contestants in the Room-to-Room Romp wore helmets, chin guards, and elbow pads.
    Wesley Eure: So that's why you can't do this at home, only on Finders Keepers.
  • Nickelodeon GUTS had a disclaimer from host Mike O'Malley:
    Mike O'Malley: Remember, all our events are designed with the players' safety in mind. They will be wearing safety equipment during all our events and will have safety spotters and stunt coordinators with them at all times. So please, do not try this at home.
• MythBusters:
  • At least twice per episode, Adam and Jamie warn viewers against trying to replicate anything seen on the show, and that they rely on their years of experience and consult with experts to keep themselves safe. Often presented with an element of humor, such as Adam wearing a chest protector and being hit with a bat by Jamie, or Adam wearing a muscle suit and flexing for the camera.
  • In an interview, they claimed that they hated to have to say this because they wanted people (at least those who knew what they were doing) to try their experiments. They did comment that "Diet Coke and Mentos" was entirely safe to try at home, but advised not to do it indoors since it does tend to make a bit of a mess.
    • An episode from early 2014 subverted the usual disclaimer. They looked at several stories and judged them on 1) were they factual and 2) could you safely try them at home?
  • They have a book called "Don't Try This at Home (Unless We Tell You To)", which mixes their myths with at-home science experiments.
  • This is lampshaded by Adam Savage's Twitter account: "@donttrythis."
  • Obscuring the labels of dangerous substances is frequently lampshaded, usually by Adam, as in "Hindenburg Disaster" with two substances that are "made of blur":
    Adam: Blur is very dangerous. You don't want to mix blur with blur.
  • They've done this with non-dangerous experiments that might be misused, such as the episode where they defeat a fingerprint scanner with a technique more commonly used to etch circuit boards—they leave out at least one step, and the narrator mentions they might have left it out.
  • In the MacGyver episode it was hinted that some things you could go ahead and try to do at home. Mainly because most people had access to that kind of stuff and it wasn't life-threatening. Ditto for the phone book episode; you can really interleave the pages of two phone books together without disastrous effects. You can even try to separate them with a tank, as the Mythbusters did because if you've got a working tank at your disposal, trying to separate phone books with it is about the safest possible use.
  • During the YouTube Special, Adam threatens to "personally come to your house and kick your butt" if he ever finds out that anyone tried the "get a million match heads and set them on fire" myth for themselves.
    • In that same episode, they built a flamethrower so illegal, it wasn't even shown being built on screen. They had to call in several favors to get permission to make it.
      Adam: So when we say 'do not try this at home', this is what we mean.
  • During an episode where Jamie had to back out of doing a stunt because it carried too high a risk of spinal injury (the stunt was instead performed by a professional), Adam closed out the episode with "Don't try this at home. We didn't!"
  • It was parodied in "You spoof Discovery" - "Remember kids, don't try this at home. Even though it's REALLY COOL and we're giving you step by step instructions on how to do it!"
  • During the Chinese Rocket Chair experiment, the real Adam uttered this gem:
    Adam: Remember, kids, no matter how much fun I'm having, under no circumstances should you try this at home.
  • A variant during a pseudo-crossover with Moonshiners^note plenty of clips from that show, but scheduling meant none of the cast could travel to San Francisco: Jamie pointed out that distilling booze without a permit is illegal, and held up the permit the MBs had gotten in order to film themselves making moonshine in M5.
  • In one of the final episodes, Adam and Jamie were tasked with making a glitter bomb. Adam did a skit where he jokingly showed off the glitter, paint, and high explosive as if he was the host of a craft show instructing the audience in how to do the project, while an on-screen caption contradicted him and warned not to try it at home.
• Gladiators (2024): When new challenge "Collision" debuts in the first season, Barney Walsh warns viewers not to try it at home. The warning's promptly lampshaded by his father, as viewers are very unlikely to have the equipment to attempt it.
  Bradley Walsh: Next up is a brand new game that's all about trying to cross a giant suspension bridge.
  Barney Walsh: And please don't try this at home.
  Bradley Walsh: Yes, for all of you watching with a giant suspension bridge in your front room, please don't try this at home.
• Another Experiment Show, Time Warp, also has disclaimers. On the episode where they brought in someone to blow giant bubbles to see what they were like on the high-speed, though, the hosts said: "Do try this at home, it's fun."
• In Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, the only time they say not to try it at home are the ones that the average person could duplicate (because it used common items that a normal person could get his hands on) and is dangerous. If the trick is safe or would be hard-to-impossible for the average person to try and duplicate, they don't bother.
• "Neither you nor your dumb little buddies should attempt anything seen on this show." The original, funnier opening warning of Jackass. Changed to a more serious disclaimer when one of their stunts was tried at home. The show also told viewers not to submit videos of their own stunts, and that any tapes they received would be thrown away unwatched.
  Johnny Knoxville: (narrating the opening disclaimer) WARNING! The following show features stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. Accordingly, MTV and the producers must insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact any stunt or activity performed on this show.
  Ending Disclaimer: MTV insists that our viewers do not send in any home footage of themselves or others being Jackasses. We will not open or view any submissions, so don't even bother/waste your time.
• A "don't you or your dumb buddies try this" disclaimer is used at the start and end of each episode of the spin-off show Wildboyz.
• Brainiac: Science Abuse not only uses this a lot, especially with putting things in microwave ovens that cause them to explode, but invariably reinforces it a few seconds later with "No, really — Don't," in the Richard Hammond era, and "Don't try this at home — or, indeed, any other place" in the Vic Reeves era. The latter was probably because the producers realised that the phrase alone is so clichéd now that people don't actually register its meaning any more when they hear it.
• Penn & Teller produced a special entitled Don't Try This At Home! which subverted this by mostly containing stunts which were impossible to do at home anyway, such as enclosing themselves in a tent with a million bees, or counterweighting a truck with several tons of stage weights to drive it over Teller's chest. Further subverted for humourous effect later in the special, when they demonstrate the use of hydraulic squibs for producing blood effects by having Teller throw marshmallows at Penn's fake body — near the end of the scene, Penn yells, "Guess what, kids? You can try this at home!"
• In an episode of Married... with Children, Al and Peg go on a game show where the idea is for a contestant to inflict torture on his/her spouse to win prizes. Before the very dangerous bonus round (where electric chairs are used) the host makes this warning to the viewers.
• Back in the 1980s, on the David Letterman Show, Letterman would occasionally warn the viewers, "Don't try this at home."
  • On at least one occasion, after witnessing an especially bizarre stunt, he looked at the camera and said, "Go to a friend's house instead."
  • Once when crushing random things with a huge block, Letterman used this variant:
    Letterman: It would be very irresponsible of me not to tell you kids that when you try this at home with your own crane and your own three-thousand-pound block, be very, very careful.
  • Once while wearing a suit of magnets, Letterman warned kids not to walk up to the TV with magnets because they will destroy it. A few seconds later he said, "Hell what do I care. Try it at home." Technology Marches On: With the adoption of flat-screen TVs that don't need an electron gun to show pictures (and therefore don't react so much to magnets), this skit doesn't age well.
• The "go to a friend's house instead" punchline was also used by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The guys are about to perform Hamlet really fast (as in the entire play in under a minute). They give a short disclaimer to the effect that props will be thrown about, etc., and the audience should not try this at home. Adam tosses back "go to a friend's house" as he assumes his position.
• Avoided in MacGyver: There probably was no single instance of this happening, and MacGyver did some awesomely dangerous stuff with things kids could easily get their hands on. Granted, a number of the things, while technically possible and based on scientific principles, are pretty much impossible to pull off. Plus, in interviews, the writers stated that if something was truly dangerous they'd often omit a crucial component so that people couldn't get hurt trying it.
• In the Spike series 1000 Ways to Die, the disclaimer is probably the one that gets the most to the point: "Do not attempt to try ANY of the actions depicted! YOU WILL DIE!" In bloody red letters, to boot. And if that weren't enough to hammer in the point, they flash an "Idiot Alert" on the screen for a few of the dumber deaths, warning you in no uncertain terms that not only will attempting what you're watching get you killed, but you will deserve it for being stupid enough to try.
• There was a "shockumentary" about sharks, where one man in a wet suit was in a boat dangerously close to sharks, and trying to reach his arm out to attach a tracker (or something). The narrator then said "Don't try this at home", in a completely non-mocking, serious way. One would wonder how you could get close to a shark within your own home.
• Many science shows aimed at children show due caution in their depiction of experiments. Mr. Wizard's World threw a voiceover whenever an experiment shouldn't be done unsupervised: "This is one you ought not to try at home unless your parents are around..." usually "...because you're using fire."
• In Beakman's World, one particularly dangerous demonstration involving ammonia and strong acids has a comical quick cut beforehand of all the characters turning in place with klaxons blaring and rotating red lights flashing before cutting a particularly urgent "Don't try this..." warning. It was also used before a "Bed of Nails" stunt and a stunt of placing a fluorescent lamp in a microwave. On the whole, however, this trope is actually avoided, as with careful following of the instructions and parental supervision, you could do most of the experiments shown at home. The "safe" stunts had their own warning: "Experiments should be performed only with adult supervision, and all appropriate safety precautions should be taken. All directions should be followed exactly, and no substitutions should be used."
• As for Bill Nye the Science Guy:
  • "Do not, I repeat, DO NOT attempt this demonstration at home!"
  • Some "Nifty Home Experiments" advised kids to get an adult's help if it involved boiling water or suchlike.
  • Parodied with a Spoof Aesop when Bill goes off to demonstrate the distance between our solar system and the next star in space (the solar system is in a soccer field, the next star is on a beach several miles away). Bill goes racing off in a car with the camera running on fast-forward and the announcer remarks, "Don't drive like this at home, kids! You could leave tire marks on the living room carpet!"
• That's Incredible was famous in the early 1980s for the use of this phrase to disclaim its many stunts, which was understandable considering how many real stuntmen were injured appearing on the show. However, they lampshaded themselves in a story on how a young girl spent a $5 bill containing a birthday inscription from her grandfather and then received the same bill many years later as change for a purchase. The odds they gave (completely ignoring any multiplicity effects) for receiving that exact bill were something like six quintillion to one. The number is so high to count that they exhorted viewers Don't Try This At Home.
  • Supernatural fans on Tumblr tried that at home and did it. Misha Collins, who plays the angel Castiel, is known for frequently trolling his own fandom. A Tumblr user offhandedly said she wanted to write "Are you Misha Collins?" on a dollar bill and spend it in the hopes that he'd get it one day, and HE'D be the one mind-screwed for once. She did it. Of course, other fans thought that it was funny, so they did it too. A year later, he got one - and for once, he had no idea it was coming.
• On a Farscape transcript Ben Browder tells people not attempt Unity, a special alien mental bond. Since the closest anyone could come to it is banging their heads together and hoping for the best this probably wasn't necessary. Probably.
• There was a programme on ITV with the title Don't Try This At Home. It featured numerous dangerous acts including climbing up very high cliffs in awful weather and doing the tightrope inside a building.
• At the end of every Gladiators episode there was a pretty generic "don't try this at home". Not even a "you could get horrifically injured due to lack of training".
• Subversion: in one episode of Good Eats, while Alton carves a roast the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen says "Semi-skilled professional in a real kitchen... do try this at home... but be careful won't you?"
  • Alton seems to like parodying this trope; another variation (spotted in "Raising the Steaks" as AB chows down on a homemade fajita) reads "Professional eater on closed course. Don't try this without a napkin."
  • "Closed course" warning was also present in "Romancing the Bird" while making cornbread pudding blindfolded.
  • Hazardous procedures are regularly preempted by lawyers Itchy and Twitchy, often forcing Alton to attempt safer methods of doing things. Foods with potentially hazardous ingredients (frequently raw eggs, though other ingredients such as unpasteurized milk or raw/undercooked meats also count) generally prompt a visit from the Food Police.
• A comedy sketch show featured a man who came to see a doctor because whenever he walked he would make a funny sound (he farted with every step). Eventually, the doctor told the man to shut his eyes, he went to a window and opened it, said to the screen "don't try this at home" and leaped out.
• Tomica Hero Rescue Fire had a variation/lampshade. Ritsuka was fighting a pair of Ninja Jakkast who were using a giant spoon and a large metal pot. She attacked them because she didn't want to see any cute little kids imitating them.
• On an episode of QI it was revealed that custard is dense enough to walk on if you have, say, a kiddie pool full of it. The panel jumped at the opportunity to tell any kids watching that they definitely should try this at home.
  • The footage shown of someone actually walking on custard was from an episode of Brainiac: Science Abuse, which is already mentioned above. In fact, the occurrence might be considered a Shout-Out to the show.
  • The trope was also applied to the pronunciation of Vincent van Gogh.
  • Played with when Stephen Fry advises against wiring gherkins to electric lights, then changes his mind and tells the audience they shouldn't do things just because he told them to and they should live their own lives.
• The Goodies: "We would like to point out that Ecky Thump is the ancient Lancastrian art of self-defence. When practised by the untrained, it could be dangerous."
• Aversion: Appears nowhere at all in Top Gear, possibly because no one watching at home has the wherewithal to do most of their more outlandish stunts. Clarkson has been told he has to look disapproving whenever something illegal is mentioned; he remembers this occasionally. And, of course, he's "driving at the speed limit" in all the road tests and races.
  • When putting old Eighties cars through their paces, the presenters decided to relive some of the crazy stunts they did in their cars when they were teens back in the Eighties, but wondered about modern teens imitating them. They decided they were probably in the clear since they didn't think teens were imitating them to begin with. (Nobody was asking to have his hair cut like James May's, for example.)
  • During a News segment Jeremy and James started discussing pranks they used to play on strangers such as locking up bicycles with second locks or picking up small cars and turning them around. After a few seconds Jeremy suddenly remembers that they should probably discourage their viewers from copying their pranks. James attempts to deliver a "Do not do this" speech but breaks down laughing as he says "because it's not funny".
• James May's Man Lab: In "The Beer Hunter" segment, James warns the viewers not to imitate what his team is doing "at home, or in a pound shop mockup of Vietnam."
• Scare Tactics (2003): "Watching us is hilarious, imitating us is dangerous. Don't do it."
• Frequently played around with on Tosh.0. Exaggerated when Daniel plays "Guess What Happens Next" with a video of an Asian kid who lights his crotch on fire; he spends about a minute driving home the point that viewer should not try this at home.
  • Zig Zagged with "Surprise Trust Falls." Subverted when Daniel follows his surprise trust falls by saying, "Feel free to send us your own surprise trust falls to our website, and be careful." Doubly subverted when Daniel is "forced" to ask people to stop doing them after people start sending in their own videos. Triple subverted when, after showing the surprise trust falls already sent in, Daniel says, "Screw it, keep sending them in!"
• Web Soup has a segment called "Please, Please, Please, For the Love of God, Don't Try This at Home!"
• Power Rangers:
  • When the show first aired in the UK, it was broadcast in ITV's morning slot as part of their breakfast show GMTV. GMTV also included a fitness segment with "Mr Motivator", who would appear before Power Rangers to warn viewers that the Rangers were played by trained martial artists/stunt performers and kids should Not Try This At Home.
  • This was also done when Power Rangers aired on Fox Kids UK at the end of every episode. "You are advised that the fight scenes in Power Rangers (Whatever series it was) are performed by trained martial arts experts and should not be performed at home."
  • In Power Rangers Ninja Storm Dustin says this before shooting the Monster of the Week.
• Lost: The DVD featurettes of Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) throwing huge knives are always accompanied by a warning not to repeat it without a professional trainer at your hand.
• The Young Ones - "The BBC would like to warn small children that putting people in old refrigerators is a bloody stupid thing to do."
• Back in the 1960s Bob Monkhouse's Mad Movies frequently had Monkhouse telling kids never to copy dangerous stunts from silent movies.
• Jokingly shown on the sitcom Arrested Development, where when Gob combines eating a sandwich, applesauce, and drinking from three bottles of liquor in order to swallow a key for his magic trick, the words "Professional magician, do not attempt at home" appear on-screen.
• One of the charms of Sons of Guns is Will coming up with some new way to remind the viewers at the start of the episode that they're professionals and to not try this at home. What they don't mention is that plenty of what they do with fully automatic weapons and suppressors is illegal for those without the proper licensing.
• This Movie Sucks: Ed The Sock would point out it was only OK for him to smoke because he's a puppet.
• After one sketch on Harry Hill's TV Burp, he lampshaded this by telling the camera: "Now kids, some grownups think that because you've seen me do this, you might try it, and they write to ITV to complain. So just to be sure: DON'T CUT YOUR HAND OFF WITH A CLEAVER! Aren't grownups silly?"
  • And in a later show, when he has dropped a washing machine on his own head: a klaxon goes off, "Don't try this at home!" is flashed up as a caption... and he says "You hadn't even thought about it till I just said that, had you?"
• Cake Boss has needed to invoke this on occasion. When they made a cake for Grucci Fireworks (which included live fireworks), the episode opened with a safety warning. And then Buddy blew up a test cake trying to see how this was going to work; maybe he should have watched the safety warning.
  • When Buddy was asked to make a fire-breathing cake, he invoked this trope by name during a test run.
• Dick & Dom Go Wild open each show with a reminder that they're working with trained animal handlers and kids shouldn't approach wild animals on their own, and repeat it if they do anything particularly dangerous (or cute, like feeding fawns.) And when Dick did the notorious cow pregnancy test ^note Yes, the one where you stick your arm up the cow's arse to feel the condition of its uterus: "This probably doesn't need saying, but don't try this yourselves."
• Call of the Wildman used a variant particularly suited to its purpose and its star: "Handling wild animals is dangerous. With your bare hands? Just plain crazy. Don't try this at home."
• Crash & Bernstein: "Whoa, hold on a second! I am made of cloth and stuffing. All the crazy and wild things I do on this show cannot harm me..."
• Exaggerated by a Discovery Channel Canada show, Never Ever Do This At Home, which involves intentionally doing such ridiculous things just to see what would happen (seemingly in the interest of science, but more of a Refuge in Audacity). Some of the things done by the two excitable hosts (and their safety crew) include: launching fireworks in the living room, turning a small bathroom into a giant microwave to defrost a whole fish and filling a water bed with 1000 gallons of water (weighing 4000 kg) then popping it while still in the same room.
• Horrible Histories has had them a few times, usually with the Historical Paramedics, because what they do could be seriously dangerous but at the same time is nowhere near impossible to imitate. One particularly horrible example was the one where they tried to figure out what was wrong with someone by tasting their blood.
• Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey has Michael Faraday say this while doing one of his Christmas Lectures for children, in this case using electricity to ignite a small quantity of gunpowder. (The warning may or may not be an anachronism—Faraday wrote a book on candles that emphasized proper safety measures for the "at home" experiments.)
• When the 1960s Batman (1966) series arrived in the UK, worrisome parents who imagined their kids dressing in Batcostumes and jumping off roofs led to the addition of an announcement at the end of each installment. A suitably dressed Adam West and Burt Ward told us, "Remember kids, Batman can't fly."
• The Discovery Channel series Street Outlaws, a documentary on street racing, has a rather tongue-in-cheek example:
  Just because we're dumbasses don't mean you can be one too. So, don't do any of this Beep that we do at home.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong? uses this as a Couch Gag.
  So whatever you do, don't try this at home. Leave it to us. The stupid guys.
• Emergency! inspired a lot of people to help save lives. But apparently, back in the 70s when the show was airing, there were instances of people injuring themselves or others or worsening an already injured person's condition when they tried to imitate what they saw onscreen. Episodes started airing with a voice-over disclaimer that "You can't learn first aid from watching "Emergency" or any other television show" and encouraging people to contact the proper groups to learn proper first aid techniques.
• Forged in Fire always opens with a warning to never try blacksmithing without proper training after an inspired fan's impromptu forge started a fire that burned down several houses, caused millions of dollars worth of damage, and got them arrested for reckless endangerment.
• In an episode of Little Howard's Big Question gives us an amusing spin on this, with Little Howard stating that as this is a dream sequence he doesn't have to tell people not to try it at home.
• A video of 18-month-old Tansy Aspinall playing with gorillas included the warning that the Aspinall's knew the gorillas well and vice versa. Damien Aspinall, her father stated that this isn't safe without that knowledge.
• A notice with this display was shown during a case on Judge Rinder when the judge was shown a picture of the defendant shooting a firework from between his bumcheeks while it was also tied to his penis. Arguably verging into the realms of Deconstruction as this was after the defendants nearly killed someone and the reason they were brought to court - they got their friend to sit on an airbag which they deployed and it nearly killed him. Rinder was so horrified by how callous they were he threw one of them out of court.
• Occasionally, the chefs on Iron Chef America take risks in their effort to finish their dishes in the 60-minute time limit. Whenever something particularly dangerous is happening, host Alton Brown tends to call out the trope. In particular, when chefs use the mandolin slicer with just their hands, he'll say the trope and remind viewers at home to "use the handguard" while emphasizing that the chefs have plenty of bandages and good medical. One time, Alton subverts the trope when Michael Symon poured hot oil from a deep fryer to crisp the skin of a smoked duck. He said, "If you try it at home, oh do please be careful."
• World's Dumbest... does this at the start of their "Daredevils" episodes, along with the warning against sending in submissions. It's also sometimes used when Danny Bonaduce tries to reenact some of the stunts.
• All Aussie Adventures parodies this in the credits a number of times - the point is not that Russell is a qualified and experienced professional, but that even the producers realise he's dangerously incompetent. For example, "The use of diesel fuel to start a campfire is not recommended unless you want a really big campfire." In one case, it shows up during the actual episode, during Russell's botched demonstration of applying a pressure bandage after a snake bite.
• The 2017 version of The Gong Show featured an act where a rapper did his bit barefoot on broken glass. A quick disclaimer was thrown up: "Broken glass can injure you. Don't try this at home.''
• Some of the challenges on Canada's Worst Driver, such as the J-turn, are good lessons in driving control but are illegal on public roads. As such, the host reminds viewers to not do them.
• Two of the spinoffs of the kids' game show Raven had warnings to viewers not to attempt the challenges themselves in each episode, pointing out that the kid warriors are supervised and have their safety checked by experts. The warning in Raven The Island is delivered during the end credits by a CBBC announcer while the warning in Raven: The Dragon's Eye is delivered by Raven before the opening titles.
• Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger has a moment in Brave 10 that gets Played for Laughs. When Souji and Amy are stuck in a trap and tied up, Amy reveals that she can operate a TV remote with her feet (so she'll be able to help get them out of their situation). Cue a flashback of Amy at home doing exactly that, only for the narrator to chime in...
  Shigeru Chiba: HEY!!! *Amy jumps out of her skin* Kids, don't do this at home!
• Lampshaded in the Theme Tune for Bizaardvark:
  You could watch Dirk doing crazy dares
  Saying "Here we go"
  He'll do anything you want
  But don't try this at home!
• Truth Or Scare: In the episode "Dracula", when it is told that Lucy is about to be staked, host Michelle Trachtenberg says it almost word-for-word: "Do I even have to say it? Never try this at home."
• The Weird Al Show had a joke in the episode "Mining Accident" where, after Harvey the Wonder Hamster did a stunt, Al told the audience that any hamsters watching at home shouldn't imitate Harvey's stunts because Harvey is a trained professional.
• A humorous variation on the term occurs in Series 4 of Robot Wars, during a Heat Final bout between Dominator 2 (an overhead spike) and 101 (a low, tracked robot), courtesy of Jonathan Pearce:
  Jonathan Pearce: (as Dominator 2 impales 101 and drags it around) Dominator 2, madly flailing away with that axe. Do not try this at home, children, with a toothpick on your brother's favourite model car. Wait until Christmas Day and do it then!
• A "Do not try this at home" warning from the show's host is common on television talent shows like America's Got Talent and the like whenever a dangerous act appears.

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