While I was in my lab on September 27th, I got a text from my older sister asking me if I heard about what happened to Ned Fulmer from the Try Guys. I quickly looked it up and saw that the most unexpected thing happened – Fulmer cheated on his wife, Ariel. If you know anything about Fulmer, you know he is very much devoted to his wife. He brings her up in nearly every video that he’s in. Another facet to this scandal is that he cheated on her with one of his subordinates – producer Alex Herring. It should be noted that she was engaged. This has caused somewhat of a large mental breakdown for the fandom because Fulmer’s schtitck was that he was utterly devoted to his wife, and that Ariel was integral to the Try Guys brand. Now it feels like a part of it has been destroyed to say the most.
The scandal came to light when rumors started spreading of Fulmer cheating, as seen in this Twitter thread. Basically Fulmer and Herring were caught cheating in Vegas – they were there to film a video with the rest of the Try Guys. It’s a very whacky situation as there were hints of something happening with the Try Guys changing things, as seen in the thread.
Now you may be wondering, why do so many people care so much about this? To give this topic justice as a longtime Try Guys fan, I have to give background. The Try Guys first came to be in 2014 when the four of them (Keith Habersberger, Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang) were working at Buzzfeed in various roles. They came together in videos like “Guys Try On Ladies’ Underwear For The First Time” and then the four of them created the Try Guys brand out of this. They eventually left Buzzfeed and formed their own company in 2018 after realizing that Buzzfeed wasn’t their best option as a creative outlet. During this time, Fulmer’s persona became that of a loving husband that always thought of his wife. Some would say that it was very extravagant, but most became used to it.
With the inception of the new company, legally named Second Try LLC, they brought on former Buzzfeed employees who wanted to leave for similar reasons, including Herring. Fulmer and the other three Try Guys were the CEOs of this new company, therefore in charge of all the other employees, including Herring. This is one reason why the internet is going crazy over this, especially because Fulmer posted a Tweet where he claimed this his and Herring’s affair was “consensual workplace relationship”. There are theories that it wasn’t consensual, due to the power dynamic between the two in the company, and this is such a lame excuse on Fulmer’s part. Herring currently hasn’t released a statement, but we will find out how consensual it was.
Backtracking to Fulmer’s persona of being the “wife guy”, this must be, in my opinion, what caused a lot of the shock. Fulmer’s part of the Try Guys brand was being the representative of Love whereas Kornfeld is Fun, Yang is Gay, and Habersberger is Food. This is based on their tour a couple years ago and their book, “The Hidden Power of F*cking Up.” The Try Guys brand ties back into being relatable and representing people that others viewed as role models, especially with Fulmer appearing to have the relationship that many of us strive for. It was flabbergasting to see Fulmer basically throw it all away by cheating on Ariel. She didn’t deserve any of this, and it’s a good thing that Fulmer has left the Try Guys. Questions are rising about what Ariel and the rest of Second Try. She’s on a podcast with the other significant others, as well as effectively being the female face of the brand. What will happen next?
The other part of this whole debacle is that people are becoming so obsessed with it and demonstrating the parasocial relationships that sometimes arise from following your favorite content creators. We see this often with Twitch streamers. Some Twitch fans become so obsessed with their favorite streamers that they insert themselves into their lives by hounding them whenever something happens. We aren’t in these people’s lives directly, except for the support we give on their content. It’s getting somewhat excessive, and we collectively have to avoid overstepping boundaries.
Apparently, Ned and Ariel are still together as they were seen together with their wedding rings still on. Hopefully this provided insight on why people are losing their pants over it. It’s interesting but it’s slowly turning into a meme, which is bad consider the damage that has happened to those that the affair has hurt.