The Try Guys are trying to come back from this. Their very own YouTuber scandal, where one guy, Ned Fulmer, exited the group for being caught having an affair with a subordinate, imploded first in their immediate fanbase in early September, then across the internet — from the reliable Reddit investigators to the trusty Twitter analysts to the burgeoning broadcasters on TikTok, and eventually, Instagram got there, too. For a high percentage of drinking-age adults, that made for a confusing, if self-satisfying, day. (“Who cares?†feels good in a place like this.) But for a population of the internet who lived through the BuzzFeedVideo boom, it was a natural, if surprising, turn of events.
All four of the Try Guys — Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, Keith Habersberger, and Eugene Lee Yang — were video fellows at BuzzFeed, which was basically a sweatshop where editors, producers, and directors created content with all the personality of an Old Navy commercial. Fun! Likable! Inoffensive enough to watch over and over and over again! The affable, persistently positive Try Guys took one idea — try new things — and ran with it, essentially becoming the mascots for BuzzFeedVideo in the mid-2010s. With each of their personalities in hand, the four guys parted with BuzzFeed in 2018, formed their own company, and largely maintained the same style of saccharine content. In an October 6 podcast discussing the fervor around the gossip, two of the Try Guys, Keith and Zach, also address the subtext. “We talked a lot a couple weeks ago about the daringness of creators who end projects and, frankly, we did not have that daringness,†Kornfeld says. “We have just been riding this wave and it’s working so let’s not stop.†Having their brand’s persona and long-time vibe be blown up in front of everyone they know — fans, family, and especially former co-workers — is perhaps the only thing that could challenge them to rethink the status quo they created in 2014. “That era of the Try Guys is over,†Kornfeld admits. “It’s not coming back.â€
For the immediate future, as they release their backlog of content, the videos will be the same as always minus Fulmer’s presence. But after the new year, Habersberger says, they want to “shift our content into things that more directly line with these outside projects we’ve been doing.†Within the Try Guys, most of them were already doing separate ventures. Habersberger is one-third of another boy group, the comedy band Lewberger, which made it to the finals of NBC’s Bring the Funny in 2019. Eugene Lee Yang is an actor, activist, and filmmaker, not to mention Met Gala muse, whose coming-out film is their most artful production and one of their most popular videos. Even Kornfeld is pitching a TV show and trying to film a short. Ned’s side venture, aside from being a parent, was being a husband. He wrote a cookbook with his wife, Ariel Fulmer, an interior designer. They even took being married on the road, giving relationship advice to college students. Instead of diversifying his income, Fulmer diversified his marriage. (Ariel, who also created content for the Try Guys with a podcast called You Can Sit With Us, is taking time “to focus on herself,†Kornfeld stated in the episode. It remains unclear if the employee involved in what Fulmer called a “consensual workplace relationship†will stay at the company.)
“In some ways, this gives us an opportunity,†Habersberger said. The duo of guys clarify that they won’t be replacing the fourth Try Guy, not even with fan-favorite former BuzzFeeder Kwesi James, but guests will be added. “The Try Guys was rigid and incapable of change and any attempt that I had to push against that wasn’t going to work,†Kornfeld said, sounding like a “Why I Left Buzzfeed†confessional. “And so, for better or for worse, we’re here now and what I see in that is an opportunity to have the Try Guys be more fluid and grow as we grow.â€
For those who also went through the machine and weren’t lucky enough to come out unscathed — namely, employees of color and LGBTQ+ individuals — this drama is an affirmation for abandoning the model that launched them. On Twitter, memes from fans (and people who wouldn’t admit that they were fans) became quote-tweet fodder for both those who didn’t know the Try Guys as well as those who knew who they were but couldn’t believe they were still at it. To find out, years later, that that one guy was still doing the same shtick after eight years only now he’s doing it with a wife, kids, and a mistress is too juicy to not be the whole (internet) neighborhood’s business. What the Try Guys do next is what will actually define their contribution, or lack thereof, to the web. It could be a chance to diversify their talent pool (one out of four was never enough), harness the now-nostalgic, post-Glee craving for identity that made up early BuzzFeed, and make something other than PG-13, algorithm-friendly content for all. With Keith’s versatility, Eugene’s delicate directorial eye, and Zach’s storytelling, they’ve already gotten through one titillating saga as a trio.
The BuzzfeedVideo era is officially historic enough for its own BuzzFeed video: Quinta Brunson wins Emmys for Abbott Elementary, the Unsolved ghost hunters launch a new show, and, finally, the Try Guys try something different.