The newly-turned trio Try Guys were made fun of by a Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit in light of former member Ned Fulmer’s cheating scandal on Oct. 8. However, some believe that the comedy show missed the mark when the sketch seemed to directly mock current members Eugene Lee Yang, Zach Kornfeld and Keith Habersberger, while also disregarding the issue of power dynamics in the workplace.
On Sept. 27, the official Try Guys Instagram and Twitter posted a statement indicating that Fulmer will no longer be working with the company after he admitted to engaging in a “consensual workplace relationship” with one of his employees in his post.
The group was initially formed in 2014 at Buzzfeed, where each member was working at the time. By 2018, the group decided to form their own production company, 2nd Try LLC, which acquired all rights to The Try Guys brand.
Throughout the past eight years, the quartet managed to successfully expand their business outside of the YouTube format by creating their own merchandise, podcast and even a television show that premiered on the Food Network on Aug. 23.
Unfortunately, the momentum of such achievements came to an abrupt halt when pictures of Fulmer began circulating online of him with a woman, who some suspected to be Production Manager Alexandria Herring. This came as a shock to fans, as Fulmer had been previously dubbed the “wife guy” by fans, due to him constantly referring to his wife of 10 years — Ariel Fulmer.
In a formal address video that the SNL sketch is based off of titled “what happened,” the remaining Try Guys stated that they were made aware of the relationship on Labor Day weekend after fans contacted them about seeing Fulmer and an employee in public kissing. Fulmer confirmed the relationship had been going on for a while, which was much to their surprise. After a thorough review, the men decided to terminate collaboration with Fulmer on the basis that he engaged in behavior that was against company policy.
Naturally, it only made sense that SNL decided to showcase their take on the controversy after major publications reported on the group.
In the skit, a CNN news anchor named Laura Fields (Ego Nwodim) was reporting on the war in Russia and Ukraine. All of a sudden, a correspondent named Colin O’Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) interrupted the broadcast with breaking news about The Try Guys. The camera panned to Yang (Bowen Yang), Kornfeld (Mikey Day) and Habersberger (Andrew Dismukes), displaying the same countenance that the original trio had in their formal response.
“I am trying to understand why this story is such a scandal,” Nwodim said as Fields in the skit. “Was this affair non-consensual?”
“No worse. [Fulmer] committed the heinous act of having a consensual kiss, and not telling us, his friends,” said Day as Kornfeld.
The remainder of the sketch focused on the group fervently promising to produce the same content their subscribers love. Gleeson as O’Doherty mournfully ends the interview stating, “Thank you for your bravery Try Guys. Know that the country is with you.”
When SNL tweeted a clip of the skit, online users did not hold back in the comment section expressing their disapproval.
One user on Twitter clarified that the men were not upset over Fulmer keeping secrets. Rather, “it’s a workplace violation to have any sort of relations with a subordinate of yours and [Fulmer] opened the whole company up to potential lawsuits.”
Becky Habersberger, the wife of Keith Habersberger, retweeted one user who questioned whether or not it was inappropriate to be making fun of a “sexual relationship between a company’s founder and one of its employees??”
Despite the overall negative response from viewers, some thought the writers of SNL were spot on in their depiction. “Their reaction was absurd. He cheated, he’s not a serial killer,” one user said.
SNL has not responded to the backlash from viewers. However, the skit has been performing well on the official YouTube of Saturday Night Live. Compared to the other skits uploaded that were performed that night, “Try Guys” has the most views in total reaching over 2.1 million.
On Oct. 20, almost two weeks after the skit, The Try Guys addressed their reactions to the parody in their podcast, though they refrained from elaborating in extensive detail. Kornfeld expressed his initial excitement about being mentioned by SNL, only to be disappointed with the outcome. “[It was] very unexpected that, but A that we were on it, and B that uh, that we seem to be the butt of the joke,” Habersberger said nonchalantly.
Nevertheless, The Try Guys continue to thrive as they have reached over 8.03 million subscribers since the scandal was made public. “Sometimes, like a good laugh is a relief and a piece of content that you need,” Kornfeld said in their podcast. Nonetheless, The Try Guys have shown that they know how to laugh at hardships.
Julissa Ramirez is an Arts & Entertainment Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at julisscr@uci.edu.
