This week, the hearts and souls of 7.65 million people were ripped out and put into a blender.

The Try Guys were a group that consisted of four guys, Ned, Kieth, Zach and Eugene.

The quartet originated in 2014 at the media giant that is Buzzfeed, they were a key component in the rise of the four-year Buzzfeed renaissance.

The Try Guys are known to have mostly family-friendly content, they try things and then make videos about it.

They had a reputation for challenging fragile masculinity by doing videos involving hair, makeup, fashion and allyship.

Their fanbase mainly consists of folks in their early twenties, like myself, and for a time, they were completely scandal free.

After leaving their jobs at Buzzfeed in 2018, the four of them decided to launch their own company called 2nd Try LLC. 

Over the past couple of years, the channel came to be a great success with a full staff, a shiny new office and millions of subscribers. 

With a Webby award-winning podcast, brand deals and a food network show, things were seriously looking up for the quartet. 

Then they became a trio.

Ned Fulmer, the wife guy, loves bad ideas. He loves them so much that he decided to cheat on his wife with one of his employees. 

For eight years, this man created an entire persona around him being completely obsessed with his wife, Ariel, who is also the mother of his two little boys. 

Unsurprisingly, quite a few former Buzzfeed employees spoke on their experience of Fulmer.

Many said they weren’t surprised at the cheating allegations.

Some even claim that this isn’t the first time Fulmer had stepped out on his marriage, and others straight up said they refuse to trust someone who makes one thing their entire personality.

Ariel, as well as Alex Herring whom Fulmer had a relationship with, are both heavily featured on the YouTube channel. 

It all started when fans on Reddit began to share pictures of Fulmer and Herring at a club being extremely affectionate towards one another like they weren’t even trying to hide anything. 

Herring’s former partner of ten years leaked messages confirming that the two people in the photos were indeed Fulmer and Herring. 

Over the past three weeks, the TryceraTop community started noticing that Fulmer had been absent from the channel and the podcast for a while. 

Videos were weirdly edited and Fulmer was no longer showing up in merchandise photoshoots.

I didn’t think too much of it at first, they all have their own lives and own projects outside of work, then the Try Guys released a statement that broke me.

When they announced Fulmer was no longer associated with 2nd Try, I was bamboozled. The more I began to process this, the less bamboozled I became.

I recall one specific episode of their podcast (the TryPod) where Fulmer made a comment on an employee’s biological clock.

For context, the employee was just talking about how the idea of being 35 with no kids, a cat and a nice apartment was a “mood.”

Fulmer then chimes in with “Oh, 35 and no kids? Good luck fighting that biological clock.”

I guess Ned kind of realized he was incorrect when he addressed the comment on the following episode of their podcast. 

Even though this particular event happened a year ago, his apology has rubbed me the wrong way ever since. 

He was just saying the basics: he said he was sorry to the employee and to the audience, but then he started talking about how horribly he felt and how beat up he was by this situation.

If you’re familiar with Unlearn Everything, then you know talking about how you’ve been affected by your own wrongdoings is a big manipulative no-no.

Over here, that’s what we call a YouTuber apology. 

Fulmer even left a pregnant pause at the end of his apology for dramatic effect. The only thing that I felt after that was discomfort.

After the news broke, people were speculating what was going to happen to Herring. While she is still being followed by the rest of the guys and their wives, people are wondering what the deal is.

For press release purposes, Fulmer clarified that he began a “consensual” workplace relationship. While cheating is immoral, it’s not a basis for firing someone.

Is there such a thing as a consensual relationship in a boss/employee dynamic? Not if the boss is the owner of the company.

With the internet in flames over this unfortunate event, some people are pointing the finger at the rest of the guys for not acting enough.

While there are probably lots of non-disclosure agreements involved, we should all do well to remember that the guys just lost a best friend and now they have to start from scratch.

The Try Guys stated that they will be addressing things on their podcast coming up on Oct. 6. 

In the meantime, I have two things to say.

To Zach Kornfield, you are loved, but please check your usage of AAVE. It is deeply embarrassing for you and you probably have no idea.

Lastly, I would like to nominate Kwesi James as the newest Try Guy.

Until next time, stay beautiful.

 

Ftouhi can be reached at [email protected]