If you've been on the internet at all the last couple of weeks, you probably know that Ned Fulmer left the Try Guys after it came out that he was cheating on his wife with a colleague.
It was a huge surprise to fans because, after all, Ned was known as a wife guy, and Try Wife Ariel was a regular feature of the group's content.
They even wrote The Date Night Cookbook together, and having relationship stuff figured out was simply part of their brand.
But when photos showed Ned kissing video producer Alexandria Herring at a New York City bar, it quickly became the only thing anyone on Twitter or TikTok wanted to talk about.
TRY GUYS NED CHEATED ON HIS WIFE W FOOD BABIES ALEX???? NED “I LOVE MY WIFE” FULMER CHEATED ON HIS WIFE????
Ned, Eugene Lee Yang, Zach Kornfeld, and Keith Habersberger created the Try Guys while working at BuzzFeed in 2014. (They left and started their own production company in 2019, which BuzzFeed Inc. has a financial stake in.)
The most ironic part of the Ned Fulmer/Try Guys drama is that someone at Buzzfeed is going to write an article about this.
Obviously, it was a big story for BuzzFeed News; internet culture is a staple of what we write about.
twitter confirmed that "try guys" is the no. 1 trending topic in the us, followed by "ariel" — here's the explainer: https://t.co/IXloAwWeIU
Then the remaining three Try Guys released a video in which they provided some more information about what had happened since they found out about the affair, and revealed that they had slowly been editing Ned out of their old videos.
View this video on YouTube
Once again, people simply could not look away.
if looks could kill…#tryguys
Well, Saturday Night Live has now weighed in with a sketch focusing on the absurdity of YouTubers' personal lives becoming a major news story.
View this video on YouTube
Brendan Gleeson, this week's host, drops the breaking news of the Try Guys' response with the gravitas of a White House correspondent.
Ego Nwodim stands in for anyone who was totally perplexed by the scandal and the hold it suddenly had on people. "What in the world is a Try Guy?" she asks.
Bowen Yang, in particular, captures the intensity the real-life Try Guys had brought to the situation.
But for some people, the jokes missed a critical point: that Ned didn't just cheat — he cheated with someone he worked with who had less power than he did.
if anything,, can we PLEASE stop downplaying it as just a simple cheating scanda . ned fulmer was her BOSS . this was a power imbalance , and companies like SNL are just twisting the narrative for laughs . it’s just stupid ,, and unfair to the remaining try guys as they fight
that try guys skit was so tasteless…saying they were overreacting for firing ned when it is so rare for men to face the consequences of their actions in the entertainment industry #snl
People: why are men hesitant to speak out against other men when they abuse their power and hurt others?? SNL: let us remind you :) #snl #tryguys
is it just me or is it kinda screwed up that they are making fun of a POWER DYNAMIC of a sexual relationship between a company’s founder and one of its employees?? #snl #tryguys
Other people were annoyed that Ned — the person who had actually done something worth apologizing for — didn't get made fun of.
hate how they cared enough to find and purchase zach's exact shirt but not enough to do basic fucking research on why ned should be the butt of their joke, not the other guys #tryguys #snl https://t.co/AN0Chwi8WM
I should not care this much but snl doing a try guys bit where they make fun of NOT Ned but the other three for holding him accountable for all his shit and being hurt by it is so nasty like pls tell me more abt how funny you think a man cheating on his wife with his employee is
this skit says way more about snl’s workplace environment than it ever will about the try guys’ https://t.co/xUVYWDcTCP
And some praised the Try Guys for taking their workplace environment so seriously.
to be clear the try guys are probably the only people in the entertainment industry to actually take action to stop men using their power inappropriately and they’re being publicly shamed for talking about their feelings on it. awesome take snl https://t.co/PmD3VYz3Tg
What did you think of the sketch? Let us know in the comments.
