What Is Going On With the Try Guys?
They're trying an alleged cheating scandal this week
Update: On Tuesday afternoon, the Try Guys released a statement saying that Ned Fulmer would no longer be working with them. “As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward together,” the statement read.
Shortly thereafter, Fulmer issued his own statement:
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If you engaged with BuzzFeed content circa 2016, you likely remember who the Try Guys are. They’re guys who try things on camera, ranging from everything on the Taco Bell menu to everything on the Pizza Hut menu. Four years ago they left Jonah Peretti’s shingle, where they had become bona fide internet stars, and struck out on their own; since then, they have amassed almost 8 million subscribers on YouTube, created an extended universe of sorts, and presumably made more money than you or I will ever see in our lives. All has been well for them until last night, when rumors that Try Guy Ned Fulmer cheated on his Try Wife, Ariel Fulmer, with Alex Herring, host of the Try Guys series “Food Babies.”
That is basically the gist of it, but I’m sure you have more questions. Namely, who? And, what? Do not worry, I am here to try and explain.
Who Is Involved Here?
Well, there are four Try Guys: Keith Habersberger (the tall one), Eugene Lee Yang (the hot one), Zach Kornfeld (I don’t know what his deal is), and Ned Fulmer (the allegedly cheating one). We will be primarily focused on Fulmer. The other two people you need to remember are Ariel Fulmer, Ned’s wife who occasionally appears on their channel, and Alex Herring, an associate producer at Try Guys HQ and, as previously mentioned, host of a video series called “Food Babies” wherein she eats things.
Okay… So What Happened?
Last night in a now-deleted Reddit post, one fan combined all of the allegedly suspect behavior from the past few weeks. An ad in which the Try Guys advertise their new line of tracksuits only featured the three guys who are not Ned, the regular intro to their videos had been changed to only feature the other three, and Ned had not appeared on the latest episodes of their podcast, the TryPod (clever name). Ariel, the wife, also hosts a TryPod, and she has not been on the last two episodes. Weird, right? It gets weirder.
A different Reddit user claimed to have proof that Ned had been cheating on Ariel. When asked to show it, they shared Instagram DMs with an unknown source who said that someone they both knew (the name was blurred out, but it was apparently a “she” wearing a red dress) had been making out with Ned at a bar in New York City — the East Village mainstay Niagara, for those wondering.
Was the Woman in the Bar Alex?
No one knows. What people do know is that Alex’s fiancé Will removed all photos of her from his Instagram account, unfollowed her, and then went private. People are assuming this is related to the alleged cheating.
I Heard Something About Video Editing?
Okay this is actually the craziest part. Eagle-eyed fans noted that it appears that Ned had been fully edited out of two recent videos, “Try Guys Ruin Chocolate Eclairs” and “Try Guys Try Stand Up Comedy.”
In the first image in the above tweet, you’ll see a comparison of what that lilac-colored set usually looks like, versus what it looked like in the “Eclairs” video. Notice how the second image looks as if the entire set has been compressed. Fans believe that Ned is supposed to be sitting in the middle, and he has been completely removed from the video. In the other images, you can see that Ned owns a certain shirt, and someone wearing a similar shirt is seen in the background of the “Stand Up” video.
I’m Getting Parasocial Vibes From This Whole Thing.
I mean, I guess? But these people have entwined their personal lives and their professional lives to such a degree — with Ned’s professional image being that of the ultimate Wife Guy, even roping his spouse into content creation — that if something like this were to happen, it was bound to cause a fan freakout. If any of this is true, this is less like John Mulaney cheating on Anna Marie Tendler and more like if Kourtney Kardashian started cheating on Travis Barker with Jonathan Cheban. And if you understand that sentence, I am so sorry.
What Happens Next?
The Try Guys now have to address what’s going on, so I bet that will happen in the next few days. They run what I imagine is a multi-million dollar operation, and this kind of thing is bad for their bottom line. The real question is: Who’s out? Is Ned going to leave? Is Alex? If Ned leaves, does Ariel have to leave, too? Will some other Guy — or maybe even a Gal, in the name of gender parity — replace Ned if he does get the boot? I probably have a good 12 of caring about this alleged scandal still in me, so I hope they tell us soon.
