By Riley Dauber
Opinion Editor
“I love my wife,” a male celebrity will say one week before rumors about him cheating on his wife are released.
The most recent example of this scenario is internet personality Ned Fulmer, who co-created Try Guys LLC. with friends and co-workers Zach Kornfeld, Keith Habersberger, and Eugene Lee Yang. The four began working together at Buzzfeed before breaking off in 2018 to start their own channel and company.
In their YouTube videos, the Try Guys try different activities or experiences. Recent videos show them high-diving and doing stand-up comedy for the first time, while also reflecting on their personal experiences and connections with the activity.
Each member has a distinct personality, which is reflected in the type of content they release on the channel. Fulmer dedicated many of his segments to his wife Ariel and his children. He was the “family man,” being the only Try Guy with kids, and his shtick was always talking about his wife.
So, there was an odd sense of irony when photos of Fulmer and Try Guys producer Alexandria Herring making out at a club made the rounds on Reddit on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
The internet went up in flames, with many on Twitter and TikTok reacting to the situation and wondering what the next move would be for the company.
“Have I watched the Try Guys in the last five years? No. Am I fully invested and personally very hurt by Ned cheating on the beautiful lovely Ariel, his wife and mother of children? Yes absolutely,” Twitter user @wunderyst tweeted.
On the same day, Fulmer and the Try Guys both released statements on Instagram in response to the rumors.
“Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship. I’m sorry for any pain that my actions may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all to Ariel,” Fulmer said in his statement.
The Try Guys statement did not confirm or deny the relationship, but instead stated that Fulmer would be leaving the company.
“Ned Fulmer is no longer working with The Try Guys. As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward together. We thank you for your support as we navigate this change,” the Try Guys said in their statement.
Then, on Monday, Oct. 3, Kornfeld, Habersberger, and Yang released a video on the channel titled “what happened.” where they explained their decision to remove Fulmer from the company after discussing the situation with lawyers, according to the video.
According to both the video and BuzzfeedNews, the three learned of Fulmer’s infidelity at the beginning of Sept. Although the rumors were not confirmed at the time, the company began editing Fulmer out of videos in an attempt to diminish his online presence. Since then, the company evaluated the situation to determine next steps.
“From the jump, we were acutely aware of just how contrary this was to the values of the company we’ve built and those of everyone who works here. This is something we took very seriously. We refused to sweep things under the rug. That is not who we are and is not what we stand for,” Yang said in the video.
Removing Fulmer from the company following a relationship with an employee was the right decision for the company to make, but it is also heartbreaking to see how the infidelity has affected their friends and co-workers.
According to both CNN and the video, the Try Guys are planning to remove Fulmer from pre-recorded videos that have yet to be released. It is a testament to their editing team that they are able to adjust videos in response to the situation.
Fulmer’s infidelity is a part of a long list of male celebrities who base their platform on being “the wife guy.”
Comedian John Mulaney, who often praised his wife AnneMarie Tendler in comedy sets, announced his divorce in 2021. He was later seen with actress Olivia Munn, and the two had a son together, despite Mulaney’s previous statements about choosing not to have children with Tendler. Fans were rightfully upset when the comedian’s online presence was revealed to be false.
As for lead singer of Maroon 5 Adam Levine, previous direct messages between him and younger women were released in September. The messages proved his infidelity, and he said in a statement on Sept. 19 that “my wife and my family is all I care about in this world. To be this naïve and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make,” according to Entertainment News.
Screenshots of Levine’s DMs with other women became memes on Instagram, but the Mulaney and Fulmer situations show how intense and unstable fans’ relationships with celebrities can be.
Fans were heartbroken to learn that their favorite celebrities were not as faithful as they thought. It feels like a lie, to hear over and over how much these men love their wives only to hear that it is, in fact, not true.
But why are fans so upset? It’s not like they know Fulmer personally. These situations truly show the damaging effects parasocial relationships can have on people. Fans believe that their favorite celebrities can do no wrong, when in reality, they are people just like us. They are just able to pick and choose which “brand” they want to put out into the world, and whether or not it is accurate to who they really are as a person is unknown to the general public.
In an episode of the Try Guys’ podcast, Kornfeld said, “The silver lining in this was realizing the impact that our content and even that BuzzFeed generation that we were a part of had on so many people, and it touched part of their lives. I’ll say, I wish we had found out a different way…but it was like, ‘Oh wow, this f—king matters to people.’”
Fortunately, the Try Guys have successfully responded to the issue by removing Fulmer from the company, even if it was difficult to lose a close friend and co-worker of eight years, as Kornfeld said in the video.
“We have prided ourselves for the last eight years on being undramatic boys, and I can’t wait to go back there,” Kornfeld said. “This whole f—king circus is not interesting to me and not what I ever want to be defined as, as a creative person.”
As a Try Guys fan, it is great to see the three remaining members responding to the issue. While many of the memes and tweets poking fun at the situation are comical, some fans need to recognize the pain that this situation caused for everyone involved. Not only does this hurt Ariel and her children, but the company is losing a founding member and friend.
Being aware of the entirety of the situation is key, and it helps that the Try Guys are being so open and communicating every detail. This honesty guarantees that fans can clearly understand the situation and continue to support their favorite creators.
Hopefully, moving forward, the Try Guys can continue to spread positivity through their videos, since they have amassed almost 8 million subscribers.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo Caption: The Try Guys – from left to right: Eugene Lee Yang, Ned Fulmer, Keith Habersberger, and Zach Kornfeld – recently announced that Fulmer would no longer be a part of the company following a workplace relationship with a producer.