Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?

Let's find out! Here at Tropedia (wiki), troping is our number one concern.

In a nutshell, two (later three) guys decide to put various things into a microwave oven and post their findings on YouTube. Test subjects range from the mundane (like grapes and a bar of soap) to the truly bizarre (like a Pikachu doll, a toilet bowl, and rubber duckies) and even the dangerously stupid (like two iPods, fireworks, smoke bombs, and an airbag - twice).

The show ended after ten seasons, which you can watch here.

Tropes used in Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This? include:

• Art Evolution: After the first 20 or so videos, the guys began gaining more confidence and adding ever more elaborate safety protection. Also, the show switched to HD at the end of Season 7.
• Awesome Yet Practical: Microwaving pipe cleaners. They act like makeshift fireworks, and with no smell or afterburn.
• Back From the Dead: Saint Margret II did it three times!
• Catch Phrase: "That's why we hide behind this tinfoil shield. It's to protect our nuts. Because nobody likes roasted nuts." Has been used on and off as of season 8.
  • Also "Release the Kraken!"
• Catchphrase Interruptus: A Running Gag of the earlier seasons had Riley interrupting Jory during his catchphrase.
• Cluster F-Bomb: An outtake from "Gasoline" shows Jory doing this after he cracks up on a take.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Jonathan Paula (normally the camera guy) has hosted Episodes #120, #150, #182, #228, #247, and #283.
    • He played the sidekick role in Episodes #157, #195, #254, and #290.
  • Riley McIlwain (normally the sidekick) has hosted Episodes #195, #268, and #290.
• Deadly Gas: Well, not really, but whenever they heat something plastic in their microwave oven, they experience noxious fumes.
  • The Lithium Polymer Battery (Episode #136).
  • The Mighty Putty (Episode #196), although it wasn't so much "deadly" as it was smelling horrifyingly bad.
    • Ditto for the Two Furbys.

Jory: The masks! They do nothing!

• • Averted on "Ammonia Inhalers", but only because they tested it out on themselves before nuking.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jon, occasionally.
• Determinator: Saint Margret II. Despite losing her plate, half her window, and some of her side paneling she managed to revive herself from the inevitable microwave death after attempting to heat a Nintendo Wii. This feat was promptly repeated after the electric fan experiment, and after taking a violent medicine bottle explosion without even slowing down revives herself one last time after heating a bunch of metal stuff. She ended up being a very rare surviving microwave, having lived through the end of the season before being retired.
• Detect This
• Don't Try This At Home: These guys have come very close to killing themselves a few times.
  • The most obvious example is Episode #167, the first "Airbag". Seriously, JORY WOULD'VE BEEN DEAD IF HE DIDN'T BOLT AFTER TURNING THE MICROWAVE ON!
  • By name, with the tagline "Do it in a dorm."
  • Parodied with "try it at your parent's house," since the show is filmed in Jon's parents' house.
• Eye Scream: The eyes of the Furbies they microwaved (Episode #46) were burnt out. Sleep well, children. No, seriously, now that the Furbies are dead...
• Fan Service: Riley dressed as a certain character from a famous series of ads in Episode #268.
• For Science!: Naturally.
• Grand Finale: Episode #300.
• Groin Attack: The bonus video for Episode #266 ("Shotgun Microphone"), aptly titled "Getting Flicked In The Balls".
• Hollywood New England: All three boys are from the Boston area, but they have been known (espeically Jonny) to deliberately play up their accents, and Bahstunian types, for effect.
• Ho Yay: Jory and Riley invoke it for laughs.
• I Call It Vera: Nearly every microwave from Season 2 onward has had a name. Subverted when Jory kept referring to "Sarah" as different names until the Grill Brush experiment, her LAST one.
• Idiot Ball: Jory touching things which have just gotten out of the microwave and complaining it's hot.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Discussed in "Ammonia Inhalers".
• Jedi Mind Trick: Parodied many times. From Episode #284...

Riley: You will not try this at home. Jon: Riley, are you trying to use Jedi Mind Tricks on our YouTube audience? Jory: I will not try this at home.

• Long Runner: Ten seasons over four years (2007–11), with 300 experiments and slightly more episodes.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "Here at Jory Caron Laboratories, [something about safety]."
• My Name Is Not Durwood: In Season 8, they called their microwave oven (Sarah) different names, much to the chagrin of cameraman Jon. Luckily, Jory managed to get it right by her last experiment.
• Near-Death Experience / Nightmare Fuel: Episodes #167 (the first "Airbag") and #256 (the second "Lava Lamp") had the boys genuinely fearing for their lives.
• Oh Crap: Their shock that one of their microwaves outright exploded as a result of sticking an airbag inside it (Episode #167). Most of it got blown clean across the garage, but the door got the most distance...and made it to eBay. They also let this loose when they saw that the tinfoil shield actually did its job.

Riley: The tinfoil shield, it actually worked!!

• • Made even more epic with the fact that, had he not been fast enough, Jory would've almost certainly been severely injured, if not outright killed by the flying debris.
  • They redid the experiment in Season 10 (Episode #274), but done outside like Episode #44 ("Dynamite"). The results were the same as before.
• Three Of Us
• Overly Long Gag: THREE! POINT! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo...
• Pilot: "Jonny's Leftover Emporium", where among the many items are four microwaves. The first experiment was "Light Bulb".
• Percussive Maintenance: Jory and Jon try this with Sandra after Diane breaks her.
• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: In later episodes, each member of the cast asks you to subscribe not to the channel you're watching, but to their personal YouTube channels instead.
• Potty Failure: Episode #256, the reprise of "Lava Lamp".

Jory: I don't have to go to the bathroom anymore!

• Pyromaniac: Well, Micro-Maniacs, really.
  • Played straighter when after a Justin Bieber doll killed Emily, they set it on fire.
• Self-Deprecation:

Jon: Please Don't Try This At Home. Jory: We're what you call "stupid".

• • Also counts as a Shout-Out to Myth Busters
• Soundtrack Dissonance: During Episode #77 ("Fireworks"), the American national anthem is used over a slo-mo replay of the fireworks going off...which culminates in something like "the scream from Alien".
• Spoof Aesop: Since you really shouldn't do this at home, answering the Title Drop ends up as one of these.

Jory: Bottle rocket was not a good idea. Firecrackers are a damn good idea!

• Stuff Blowing Up: As a general rule, never try heating bottled containers of alcohol or flammable chemicals in your microwave oven at home.
• Taking You with Me: For Episode #62, they tried microwaving the remains of their old microwave Diane inside her replacement Sandra. The microwave lights flashed on and off, strange noises were heard, and the new microwave then stopped working in a heartbeat.
• Wham! Line: From Episode #104: "For any of you who thought 'oh, it takes many experiments to kill a microwave', you're wrong..." Vanessa's death after two experiments was by far the shortest tenure to that point, shocking even Jory; before her, every microwave lasted at least fifteen episodes.
• Why Won't You Die?: Saint Margaret II managed to resurrect three times after microwaving the Wii, electric fan, and gold and copper...after which she was retired. If you were to put an airbag in her, she'd be thinking "Why are you trying to kill me? IT WON'T WORK!!!"
  • The entire cast and crew. Not that they've necessarily been injured, but the stuff they do is so beyond safe it approaches from the other direction. They have almost gotten killed on at least one occasion.

"Isn't ink petroleum based?....yeah, we should put that out." "No, this is good, this is good."

• • Cindy became "undead" while microwaving a model DeLorean (only her turntable still worked).