It looks like the Try Guys will try self-preservation, more than a week after firing one of the founding members.
On Thursday two-thirds of the remaining Try Guys trio — Zach Kornfeld and Keith Habersberger — said that they don’t plan on filling the vacant spot left by former member Ned Fulmer, who was fired amid cheating allegations.
“We will have new people that come in and out, we obviously already have our buddy Kwesi, who we love, but I don’t want to put the pressure on anyone to say, ‘This is the new Try Guy, and he is the replacement,’” Kornfeld said during Thursday’s episode of the group’s “TryPods” podcast, its first since the firing. “That’s not fair to them.”
Before that, Kornfeld said the upheaval around Fulmer’s exit presents an opportunity for the popular YouTube comedy channel to change. He said that he sees this as an opportunity to “have the Try Guys be more fluid.”
Habersberger explained that not enlisting a new, permanent Try Guy personality means they can “get more people” into the mix of their videos.
“It’s a good opportunity to let other people, to let women, to let nonbinary people, to let people from different backgrounds, ages, and body types have these sorts of experiences,” he said. “So, we can actually, as viewers, gain a different perspective of cool opportunities.”
Last week, the Try Guys fired Fulmer after learning that he engaged in what he called a “consensual workplace relationship” with a colleague despite being married to Ariel Fulmer. For the Try Guys community, Fulmer’s alleged infidelity seemed uncharacteristic as he prided himself on being a “wife guy” and repeatedly boasted about his marriage in previous YouTube videos. His firing came after speculation swirled on social media platforms including Reddit and Twitter.
“All of that information was just as shocking to us all as all of this has been for you this week,” Habersberger said to fans Monday in the first Try Guys YouTube video released after Fulmer’s cheating allegations.
In the clip, Fulmer’s former co-workers said that he has retroactively been scrubbed from upcoming videos (save for advertisements), and that videos largely featuring him will not be published.
“You will never see them and that is due to his involvement,” Kornfeld told viewers. “That’s a decision that has cost us lots of money. We will not be able to recoup that money, but it’s a decision that we stand by proudly.”
In the video, Eugene Lee Yang said that he and his co-stars were “deeply hurt” by Fulmer’s actions and asked fans to “exercise kindness” to the parties involved in the scandal.
“What we hope is that within this, there’s also the opportunity for positive growth and better videos ahead, but it’s gonna be hard,” Kornfeld said toward the end of the video. “The whole thing is gonna be really f— hard.”
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