Fun fact: the try guys dropped their initial response video on my wedding day. I have a funny picture of my wife in her dress and bridesmaids around her watching her phone in awe.
thts because he hangs out with their wives a lot like outside of work nd stuff so from what i know since he introduced ariel’ to ned he might feel a way.
Ned's biggest problem was how much he marketed himself as "the married one" and then "the family man". Plenty of other celebrities and UA-camrs have done much worse and been forgiven, but when your entire identity is loving your wife and kids cheating is way more of an issue to fans.
I don't know about being forgiven it's just that it doesn't really matter to Hollywood executives and plenty of people when people don't have good morals or values. The difference here is that the team does have good morals and values and they would have done something no matter what fans thought.
@Angelface11 I definitely agree that the Try Guys would have removed him regardless, I just mean that if Ned's whole career wasn't based off of being "the loving husband" the controversy wouldn't have blown up as much as it did.
idk why people treat this as a simple "bros before hoes" average situation. This was a boss and employee! a multimillion-dollar business! a business that relies on an online status. it's refreshing to actually see these famous influencers actually take something seriously and treat it as it should be treated and addressed online
Completely! Not only does this video gloss over that aspect, but it also seems to have completely missed the point that Zach, Keith, and Eugene are not just three guys who make videos with their friend, and now they don't. They're the owners of a company with dozens of employees, including their own family members, who were very aware of how damaging this could be to their brand and their company and were actively trying to avoid this issue ruining the lives/livelihoods of everyone at 2nd Try.
@@hammondOT???? Do you think anyone concerned about Ned Fulmer doesn't recognize that Bill Clinton did bad shit too?? UA-cam comment sections are so fucking weird
It boggles my mind that people thought Keith, Zach & Eugene were overreacting. All I can figure is that those people haven’t been following the Try Guys from the beginning like I have. Legal stuff, arguments and money aside - these four guys had worked so closely for 8 or more years, attended each others weddings & baby showers, traveled to Australia and all over the US. They banded together to leave buzzfeed and protect their creative properties. How would Ned’s actions not feel like a stab in the back and a gut punch all at once? The amount of people that lack empathy scares me.
I had a very good friend who very nonchalantly announced she had slept with a mutual friend's fiance multiple times. Then she was outraged when I "judged" her for it. The 'judgement' was me saying "I wish you didn't tell me that". I've never seen her the same since and I just let that friendship die. It was disgusting how little empathy or feeling she had for the mutual friend she betrayed. It turned my stomach and I'm not a liar so I couldn't pretend to be her friend after that.
@irishhoopers6899 I would do the same because you don't know if she'll go behind you back. My best friend has slept with girls who have boyfriends and he slept with a friends gf they weren't super close but still judged him but not much you can do it's their choice. At least I know he'd never steal my bf's 😂😅
For me the most infuriating part of this was the fact that Ned didn’t just fuck up his own company, he also lost his family’s entire income because Ariel was a full time employee of the company as well. She starred in two of the podcasts as well as appearing in tons of videos. She’d been an interior designer before but after having two of Ned’s kids she started focusing on working on the UA-cam channel because of course she would. So when Ned was cheating with his subordinate he wasn’t just endangering his own job, but also his wife’s. Real selfish asshole behavior.
Watching it for the first time with the in depth context beforehand was a frustrating and pretty nauseating experience. Turning such a tense, carefully worded response in to a Jake Paul style clout chasing mock-up was disappointing even when I expected no better from SNL. I’m 50/50 on the conspiracy stuff; it’s just as possible SNL is just that shallow, esp cuz it was a viral topic.
The SNL part frustrates me because they misrepresented the situation. Ned didn’t just have a fling with some side chick. He had a at least months long affair with an employee! He put them not only in a hr nightmare but tricky legal situation. There’s an argument that the employee can’t consent because of the power dynamic.
Honestly, the fact that in an industry like TV, where there are constant stories about subordinates being taken advantage of, the fact that SNL decided to misrepresent the situation like that seems super sketchy to me. Like, who are you covering for there? Why side with the man who did something Very legally dicey and immoral? Makes you ask some questions about what the higher ups of that show think about having inappropriate relationships with people who might not consent due to hierarchy
@@roseyoung44 Ik TRO briefly mentioned it and that it has been brought up a ton, but the fact the higher ups at SNL have similar accusations against them and they made that skit speaks VOLUMES to me.
The argument that Ned shouldn't have been fired because "cheating" is not a firable offense is wild. He had an affair with a subordinate. MOST companies would have fired or demoted the people in involved. In this case, Ned's entire brand was being a devoted loving husband. He ruined that brand AND showed that he wasn't responsible enough to be in management position. Removal was completely reasonable. They're lucky no lawsuits have been brought up for favorable treatment or hostile work environment. To be clear though: usually the woman is fired and the man gets a demotion/slap on the wrist, so good for them for not pulling that ish.
It's really not wild. You, as almost everyone else in these comments, are just deflecting responsibility of a girl pursuing a married man solely onto the married man because you don't actually believe in female agency despite the "female empowerment" rhetoric we have going on nowadays. Not to mention that male cheating is completely different from female cheating; females owe sexual exclusivity in relationships while males owe resource provision. If Ned was spending his family money on gifts for the other girl then he was cheating, but mere kissing or sexual activity is not
@shadowpathfinder7723 He was the Director of Human Resources, and she was an employee (i.e a Human Resource). This is not about sex/gender roles. If he was not fired, they could have been sued by Alex (the producer).
@@shadowpathfinder7723your definition of cheating is not a common one at all. Sexual activity definitely falls under cheating for most people. Your definition of a relationship is not common as well. I don’t know what you were taught or raised with but that is definitely not the common view.
You completely ignored the main issue. He had an affair with an EMPLOYEE. This is why it was so serious and gross. No business with integrity would stand for it.
Exactly. This is the main and one of the MOST important parts of the whole controversy. Ned abused his power and shattered the trust of everyone around him. And Alex's husband's too. My heart breaks for their families
And his whole schtick and brand was of a loyal loving husband. Even his toy resembling him would say “my wife” he profited off being a good husband for his videos and even did a seminar on a loving marriage
@@SaintJoihonestly ive been enjoying the new videos more without him. Its sad that Eugene can’t be more present, but Keith and Zach are really shining, and they’ve had some wonderful guests on
I'm actually not from the Try Guys community but got really tired of the drama in the Supermega community over... bullshit, let's say, and decided to find out about this drama in September since I'd never watched the Try Guys before. And oh man, I get why people got invested. So interesting in seeing this from an outside perspective (with less personal hurt/bias) but I can say that the remaining 3 guys handled the situation as flawlessly as they possibly could.
The angle I'm surprised you didn't take is that Ned didn't just have an affair, he had an affair with an *employee.* They had to fire him, it was an incredible abuse of power that could have gotten them into a ton of trouble if Alex decided to sue.
Felt like that was really glossed over. In terms of removing him, they really didn't have many options if they wanted to protect themselves from someone else's stupid actions.
In terms of an HR move it was the right decision, but let’s be real: they are both consenting adults. She’s a grown woman, not a child. Women can be simply bad people on their own, they’re not a pillar of morality.
@@CaulkMonglerthis isn't about Individual responsibility it's a matter of feminist ideology , biased courts and media. A woman having an affair with her boss can sue any company into the ground with just a few faked charges and the courts will believe her 99% of the time whilst the media will drag the company through the mud. For this very reason highly competitive companies avoid employing women at all cost as they are a massive liability in today's legal systems.
I was surprised by this as well, waited the whole video for him to bring it up. It’s a major factor in my opinion and the reason why so many people reacted the way they did.
He’s always been my favorite as a fellow person with chronic pain. He presents himself as a whole being rather than one part of his personality unlike *the other one*. He’s mature and calm
I think it’s important that Ned was the producers boss and HR. Even in a consensual relationship, Ned held more power and the employee he cheated with didn’t have a clear person to go to if she felt stuck. Regardless of intention, that power dynamic makes any relationship one that can easily and inadvertently become toxic. Partners need to be equals so everyone chooses to be there only because they want to be, power dynamics like boss/employee make that so so difficult. It was an unethical relationship outside of the fact he was breaking his partners trust
I think the cheating also showed the internal flaws of the business. There weren’t enough accountability systems in place in case HR (Ned) did something inappropriate in the workplace. It was a wake up all that they needed to ensure their workplace was one where employees has many ways to raise concerns, not just one person over HR. Again, not saying the relationship was intentionally coercive or anything, we can’t know what the relationship looked like. And, with how seemingly easily this happened it showed a system that could be used in harmful ways without accountability. They needed to create better employee supports so something like this, or worse, couldn’t happen again as easily or go on for so long
Bottom line: it left them open for any employee who felt slighted to sue. They could say they never had a shot at better assignments/opportunities b/c he favored his lover. His actions violated his fiduciary obligation to the company which is pretty standard expectations in the founding docs.
Most relationships have power imbalances and always will. Also who has power is an ephemeral and difficult to define thing where age, wealth, and seniority are very imperfect predictors. Who has the real power? The professor with a career and family to lose, or the undergrad who faces few dire life changing consequences? Seen that way a lot of our assumptions get uprooted.
@@shawnkilpatrick48393 months late but I appreciate nuance m however in this case I think the power imbalance was well defined and dang near black and white. Boss and HR guy cheating with their subordinate, one who may have felt an ungodly amount of pressure to make this guy happy.
I feel the worst for Ned’s kids, who must wonder about the community of people that are no longer in their lives. Loving aunts and uncles they had and are no longer around.
Knowing about your parents afair is already hard, but having the whole story blasted on the internet and tv will be awful once they grow up, like your dad cheated on your mom and now there's a 1 hour video on a random commentary channel about it
I never understood why people considered them overreactive. They can't win. If they hadn't done this, they would have been "typical males co-signing their bro being a bro" - not to mention they are also employers in this situation; how many people wished they worked for an employer that took the risk of workplace sexual harassment this seriously?
I agree with your point, and I think another layer is that he did his cheating in public and was caught out by fans. He jeopardized their brand, which is all of their livelihood and their passion. Dismissing their reaction as "trying to save viewers" as if that's not a good enough reason is as ridiculous as saying a lawyer not taking an obviously losing case is "just trying to save other clients" This is their business, and their friend put it at risk and that alone is enough reason to be pissed off
@morrighan8787 Well... those are two types of people. Someone's always gonna think you're wrong. The people with loose morals who think men are allowed to do anything they want to women are the ones who thought they were overreactive and they would have loved it if they hadn't done this. But once you start catering to that crowd, you're pretty much over.
The way they responded made me sob. Because I wish the church would have taken this much of a moral stance against all the shit they push down and cover up. These three men have more integrity that all of the church leaders I grew up with.
@@beckiadriaanse6312 not ti mention it was incredibly inappropriate for one of the faces of the company to be cheating with a worker that he had at least some authority over.
Kinda weird to ignore the whole thing where Ned was her boss. Like, he had to be fired because regardless of apparent consent, he was her fucking boss.
@@irlenananyou’re gonna tell me with all those times they were happily going out and about, that it wasn’t consensual? not everything is abusive. Someone can want to have an affair with their boss
@@Kevlar333 When people have faults, especially faults that cause direct inconvenience or harm to themselves or others, they should obviously work on those faults for self-betterment and social reasons, not have them excused indefinetely because "everyone has them".
@@Kevlar333 cheating is a detriment to the person committing it. a lack of self-respect and decency. 'fault' is laughable, he committed both harm to others and self-sabotage, and that itself is disgusting if you know there are people who care about you.
I find it astonishing that despite it being a core part of the story you didn't mention at all that the reason they had to fire Ned was because it was an inappropriate workplace relationship. It was an abuse of power because even if they were friends Ned had a sexual relationship with his employee. That not only leaves the whole company at jeopardy legally but also creates a distrustful and unsafe workplace environment. That is why the had to fire him. There's no room for debate. If Ned had cheated on a person outside of the company the response and outcome would've been totally different. (They probably would've separated ways tbh). Your lack of highlighting this crucial aspect suggests that maybe you didn't understand the whole situation or also feel that these workplace relationships are acceptable. Apologies for the rant.
absolutely!! i was pretty damn shocked that this was left out when it was THE reason why ned was fired from the company. the relationship ned had was not only unethical but in terms of workplace/labor laws, technically illegal. them not firing ned and taking the steps that they took could’ve opened them up to a massive sexual harassment lawsuit, one that could potentially bankrupt them and not only affect their livelihoods but their employees’ as well. ned being fired was a non-negotiation, it legally needed to happen. that’s why i also found the snl skit to be so disgusting. it treats this sort of thing as one big joke and given snl’s history with sexual harassment/sexual assault/power abuse in their company and their multiple lawsuits regarding the manner, i’m not even surprised they wrote that skit the way they did. i’m honestly shocked that TRO left this out, since it was the sole reason why this drama was as big of a deal as it was
@@sorryoutlandish This!! Exactly!!! Like there is no point of speculation of did they do the right thing or take it too far?! They legally HAD to make this decision
Yeah I’m a little disappointed that that is totally absent from this. This video has zero analysis, says a lot without saying anything at all. Ned was signing that girl’s paychecks. He not only violated a contract, he violated a contract that he wrote as the HR lead for the company. Full stop! Any company would have fired him. I also think it’s slightly unkind to the remaining try guys to not understand that even if it was just a normal affair, it was a business venture owned between friends. They all had equal stock financially in the company, and behavior that damages the brand of the company is a massive financial and livelihood risk for both the guys and their employees. They were more than correct in their decision to fire him. This was largely a MeToo scandal above all else.
Thank goodness you regurgitated what 20 other comments already pointed out! This comment section would’ve been lost without your copy & paste opinion, that mirrors what everyone else is saying.
@@isitoveryet9525Thank goodness you regurgitated what 40 other commenters pointed out in the replies and that you understand why 20 different commenters are repeating this! The replies would have been lost without your comment that adds nothing to the conversation altogether.
I hated how so many ppl saw nothing wrong with what he did. 1. He was her boss, theres already a power dynamic. 2. His whole image was being a loving husband, but went and cheated. 3. Getting cheated on or cheating is already horrible in general. 4. I actually liked Ariel she seemed down to earth and nice. If you see nothing wrong with any of that idk what to tell you 🤷♀️
It's still wild to me how so many people in "mainstream" media treated this like it was a petty spat or he was cheating on a gf or something. He had a wife, he had children, that's devastating. I feel like the rest of the guys treated it with the seriousness it deserved, and getting mocked for that still ticks me off. We can't all live off of cynicism and sarcasm forever.
Not to mention he put hundreds of people's of jobs on the line all for his own ego and pleasure especially if Alex had decided to sue the company post affair it wasn't only his job on the line but all of his friends his wife's because she worked full time for the company too and every single employee that works at that company if he had cheated with some random woman I do believe he would have been removed from videos but not from the company this man risked his entire family's well-being and financial future for temporary fun and pleasure
I really hated how so many people didn’t get why it was so fucked up. Like yes. He cheated on his wife. That sucks already. It’s awful. But the fact it was an EMPLOYEE below him is why it was such a huge issue. I can’t believe how many people I saw defend Ned. And even Alex. Like wtf
What exactly is bad about the fact that she worked under him, is it the power dynamic of a boss/ employee? Cuz it really doesn’t seem like he abused his power to get into this affair
@@Thundersz yah completely that and regardless of whether it was 'consensual', it was Ned's job as her boss and as a person who could cause huge financial liability to all the people he's working with to stop his behavior
not only that but ned WAS their HR department. if there was an issue like she felt pressured to stay with him to keep her job she would have no one to go to. they are lucky ned didn’t act more predatorily. yes it seems like she was okay with the affair and dating her boss but what if she wasn’t?
@@h3ll0k1ttygirlie I don’t particularly like Ned or the try guys but I don’t think he would be the type of guy to hold it against her or mistreat her for wanting to end the affair. People are acting like he abused her just because he had an affair with his employee that was consensual. He didn’t mistreat his employee so I really don’t think this is a valid criticism against him especially when there’s a lot of other stuff you can hold against him
This was my thought too - he was her boss. There is a ton of power dynamics at play there, whether or not it was completely consensual (which it totally could have been.) Most companies have clauses in your contract that you cannot date or have relationships with people who work below you because it opens you up to a ton of legal liability. Whether or not it was consensual, it was a violation of his position as her boss to begin a relationship with her, whether it’s an extramarital affair or not.
Around the time this came out, Zach, Eugene and Keith were noticeably stressed out in their podcast. After the fact they couldn't say much for obvious reasons, but it sounds like it was really awful and stressful for them to go through, and they felt isolated not being able to talk about it. It was clear the betrayal was not only professional but personal and it hurt them all deeply. I think they handled this as well as anyone possibly could have. That Saturday Night Live sketch was absolute trash (but uh what else is new about SNL I guess?)
im not through the doc yet so TRO might touch on it, but i think its very interesting that ned is friends with someone who wrote the sketch. at least thats what ive heard. cant confirm it, but that might explain why it was so wildly off the mark. edit: yep, he touched on it. so its mainly a theory. ppl seemed so certain about it. i could see it, though.
Something off with getting butt hurt over somebody elses marital problems. These people need to take a good look at their own personal lives if their friend/coworkers fling hurts their feelings that much. It's not normal.
@@FourteenWords-n4l His image and reputation was part of the business, aside from their personal feelings, it would have been an awful business decision to keep him especially cause they could've been sued
not to mention that they're all friends with ariel and would obviously have emotions about her HUSBAND, also their friend, CHEATING ON HER.@@Milkgurgle
Lol at his apology: "Family should have been my prority, but I lost focus..." as if you have to constantly concentrate to remember that you're married with children
@@michaelh13 Have you? lmao. I have been in several, most of them long-term, and I sure as hell didn't have to apply effort to remember I was in a relationship. I automatically passed on probably the best dude I will ever meet and the only chance I would ever have with him because I was a year and a half into a relationship; and with an ahole, no less. If you have to apply effort to remember you're in a relationship, A: you probably don't care about that person and B: you're probably a dick. When you actually care about someone, let alone _love_ them, you don't have to _try_ to not screw them over. edit: forgot a space.
@@Arcanist_Gaming No you haven’t. You speak like some 17 year old who acts wise but hasn’t seen the world yet to apply any experience. Relationships are hard, and require constraint effort, because you’re applying your energy to something independent of yourself. That’ll inevitably lead to peaks and troughs, under which certain people of dubious morality will inevitably consider cheating. Just because you were too weak to end your own negative relationship doesn’t mean everyone else has the same morality as you
I am not a fan of the Try Guys, I didn't know they existed until the scandal. But I think one of the founders of a company cheating on his wife, who is also an employee of the company, with ANOTHER employee of the company who is NOT his wife, over a long period of time, and flagrantly in public, justifies their response. That's pretty fucking low. I don't think he's an evil person or anything, but I think what he did was genuinely disgusting, and if I was in Ariel's shoes I could never forgive him in a million years, so I hope she is genuinely happier with this choice because I wish everything good for her. She hasn't done anything wrong.
Ariel is kind of weak though, bit of a doormat... If she forgave him, he'll obviously would do it again and again. Anyway, content wise... It seems like that he wanted to stick the same formula while the others actually wanted to do side projects on their own. The guy was kind of bland with no sense of creativity or personality on his own.
@@jarkkehhh213 It's incredibly difficult to make a relationship work after they cheated, and she does not only need to consider herself in this situation. She has children, and it would be difficult on them as well if their parents got a divorce. It's not right to call someone weak when we have no idea what is going on in their lives.
Exactly I don't think he would have been fired from the company if it had been a random woman and not an employee though I do believe he would have been put on the back burner and sort of tucked away not to be in videos anymore because it did go against his entire persona online to cheat on his wife
@@Maplebear1203you really think 1) the other try guys are so weak of character to have wanted to do that and 2) their fanbase would have let them live that down? Their bread and butter are being guys that are (or come off as) wholesome guys of good moral standards.
1.) They will just let it slide and not because of weak characters 2.) Yes the viewers will just let it go. Don't be so daft. Open your eyes and look at every other content creator embroiled with controversies. There are few ways in which could cause a content creatoe popularity to die. Such as when he/she stopped making content regularly, or making a massive switch on the channel direction, or embroiled irl crimes that lead to being summoned by the police and court, or directly deplatformed by the service provider. Something like a cheating scandal, which is something that every party involved could resolve by talking and making concessions internally is definitely something you can force your viewers to move on. At worst viewers count will take some dip but hey they will eventually bounce back like nothing happened if you keep grinding
@@kekconnoisseur9809 I feel like based on this response you are not a long time viewer of the try guys or have not watched much of them, because no they absolutely would not have swept it under the rug and had they done that, their fan base would have 100% left them. They said it very directly in their response video, Ned’s actions was so directly against their morals and the image they had created, and they could not see any scenario where they could move forward with him. Additionally, something Keith and Zach talked about in the podcast was that they were very aware of how traumatic and upsetting this would be for their audience. I am fully aware of how the internet works and that content creators will often put up an image, but the try guys is a group that has created an honest and positive community, and if they allowed Ned to stay on despite his horrible actions their fan base would have left them in the dust. I truly do not see a world where they would ever attempt to sweep it under a rug, knowing both how much it would hurt both their fan base and their company.
Ned was always the weakest link. It was the sweet one, the silly one, the sassy one, annnd the one with a wife. He was the only one without an actual identity, he was always tied to an external relationship
Surprised at the utter lack of further context from TRO about why Ned was dismissed in the fashion that he was. In every corporate structure I ever worked in, a relationship with a subordinate is grounds for immediate termination. Also Ned represented HR within 2nd Try, making any sort of recourse from either the other Try Guys or Alex if shit got messy for one reason or another difficult. Don't get me wrong: "cheating bad" -- particularly when your whole on-screen personality is built around your wife and kids, but it also had the potential to ruin 2nd Try if things went pear shaped between Ned and Alex.
@@PutinsMommyNeverHuggedHimI'm surprised to hear that because it's a very big legal liability for companies because of the power imbalance between a subordinate and a boss especially if said boss is ranked so much higher than the subordinate
@@PutinsMommyNeverHuggedHim it's usually those big corporate companies, I'm not from the US, but it's kinda the same in my country. Not termination, just a declaration and usually results in repositioning of the boss OR the subordinate. If it's an affair, it's grounds for an ethics case which usually terminates both employees.
@@Maplebear1203 the only thing my friend had to do in his law firm is declare the dating relationship to HR and was moved to a different location. he was never terminated, still works there and they’re married now
Honestly, I thought the three handled it really well. Ned was the boss of the woman he was having an affair with. He basically endangered the company and opened them up to litigation. I love the fact they took his misconduct so seriously and booted him.
Lowkey, good riddance when it comes to Ned. Genuinely LOVE the content without him. And his sacking gave us some great new additions to the recurring cast, such as Jared, who I cannot get enough of.
I loved him in the dress video and I was so excited to see him in without a recipe. His energy is exactly the kind of chaotic joy I need in my entertainment🙌
Without a recipe NED just brought me down because he just had angry temper tantrum’s (look at ginger bread house) where Keith’s angry food rants are for comedy.
That SNL skit has DIRECT connections behind the scenes to Ned and Alex which argues they explicitly mistold the story because the issue was that not only was he an asshole for making a paying career on “I’m obsessed with my wife” only to be a cheating scumbag but that HE AS A CEO was having a MONTHS LONG PUBLIC AFFAIR with one of their COMPANY EMPLOYEES which is such a massive HR violation it could have bankrupt the entire company
Let’s remember and make it clear it wasn’t really about cheating it was about him being in a position of authority over the person he cheated with, he was her boss and also basically HR for the company. It’s never been portrayed as anything less than consensual on both their parts but the fact of the matter is he was able to fire her if she said no, as her boss he held her career and livelihood in his hands, although she too could turn around and blackmail him because of his position in relation to her as well. It was him being her boss that was the core issue which means there’s always going to be ambiguity on it actually being consensual. Him being her boss means that even if he hadn’t of been married it still would have been an issue (albeit nowhere on this scale and probably just an HR chat) due to the authority imbalance. If he’d cheated with someone not connected to the company it more than likely would have gone down slightly differently, yes it still would have been against the family man brand he’d constructed and a slap in the face to everyone from his wife to the other guys to even the fans, but it would have been less directly and intricately connected to the company. I think people get caught up in thinking it was a morality thing, but this came down mostly to legally protecting the company and the people that rely on them for their livelihood. Yes, others involved on the periphery had to deal with the fallout emotionally, mentally, physically, interpersonally, etc but this was a business, not a personal, action in response. Cheating is really just the symptom, the cause of his firing was actually the authority and power imbalance of who he cheated with.
I honestly don’t get this criticism, I’m not a fan of the try guys but it doesn’t sound like any power dynamics or abuse were at work. If she talked to any other of the try guys he would get fired like he did now. Like yeah it sucks he cheated but it wasn’t this horrible affair where he abused her
@@Thundersz this isn’t criticism, it’s fact. Any relationship with an authority imbalance leaves the door open for using that power against the other person in the relationship. No ones saying either of them exploited their respective positions during the affair but they *could of* and that’s what makes it a company liability and not just a morality one. There’s a reason many companies have a policy against dating co-workers, it’s one thing if two interns date, it’s entirely different if the boss dates the intern. In universities Teaching Assistants have to disclose if they’re dating a fellow classmate because they’re not allowed to mark their work, either to give them an advantage or to disadvantage them if the relationship doesn’t work out. There has been no evidence to show exploitation in this specific case but the issue is that it *could have* happened with them being connected professionally, and especially with one in charge of the other professionally. This is a “what if” issue. Even if he’d been single he’s still her boss what if they’d broken up at some point? Would he have demoted her in retaliation? Fired her? Made it hard for her to get a job elsewhere? Maybe absolutely nothing, maybe it would have been 100% amicable and they’d both Ben fine personally and professionally, but the fact is the power imbalance existed and that’s the issue.
@@ThunderszThe power dynamic imbalance is just the fact that he was her boss, a co-owner and the HR rep for the company. There’s an inherent power imbalance in a boss vs worker relationship, even without the cheating. The business decision the other 3 made is because of what ‘could’ have happened. She could have used labor laws and totally sued the whole company, all 4 guys, into bankruptcy and ruined all of their reputations. She didn’t, but she could have if it hadn’t gone the exact way it did. Anyone who followed this situation should know he didn’t get fired for cheating. He literally risked all of their reputations and livelihoods. Legally, this is the only way they could have responded to save their company.
@@Thunderszit doesn't matter if you or i don't get the criticism or think it was consensual, it's just that legality would mean if they had not reacted this was they would be in a shitstorm or legal battles and the company and employees vulnerable. also, he was both her boss and HR. If she reported it it would report,,, to him. That's both a moral and legal nightmare (and fyi I do think it was consensual I just also know that regardless she could have made her case with labor laws and ruined the company)
*The Try Guys:* Are hurt emotionally that a close friend has been doing deplorable behavior, as well as financially since Ned's whole thing was "I love my wife" and little else, whose actions caused massive upheaval in the company. *The Media:* Why are they so unbelievably mad at Ned?
the “they’re only so angry to appease their fans” narrative has always seemed so insulting and ignorant to me, as someone who’s experienced something similar with a former friend group. ned was their very close friend of many years. their reaction was a completely normal one to having to a friend of that caliber lie about something as big as an extramarital affair (and even without the personal connection, it is completely fair to think a man cheating on his wife is bad, and to be angry about it). I honestly think that, if anything, the try guys’ status as internet celebrities ultimately made their reaction *less* dramatic. if this were just drama between an unknown group of friends, there wouldn’t have been all the statements drafted and business decisions made and words carefully chosen - without the factors of both needing to keep a business afloat and assuring that the people involved would be harassed as little as possible, the situation would have been fast, messy, and completely brutal. when I watch that statement I see three people who were betrayed on an incredibly deep level forcing themselves to be civil for the sake of not prompting (possibly dangerous) mass internet harassment. I have so much respect for them for waiting and making the response that they did because, having experienced the same sort of situation in a non public context, I really don’t think I would have been able to pull it together and be tactful like that
yup. and then there were ppl complaining about how the Guys would shade Nedward every now and then in videos post!firing. some ppl genuinely accused them of milking the drama, when, like, the Guys literally experienced a massive betrayal that put them through a STORM of unwanted media attention, while being legally and professionally bound to not spill all the details (as one might want to with such insane speculation from others) - i think they're allowed to make a few salty jokes to cope.
The bottom line is that Ned had an affair with his employee. That makes it a problem for the business, the livelihoods of the people they employ. There was the threat of the employee deciding to sue the business for the unethical actions of a superior taking advantage of his employee. That's a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen, and it has to be handled correctly.
Not to mention not only did he risk his closest friends livelihood and everybody who worked at that company he also risked his entire families financial security considering his wife worked full time for the company too all for some temporary pleasure and the feeling of a new relationship 😒
the fact that Ariel receives hate for her decision to stay with her husband is wack. she surely would have been justified in making that decision, but she is just as justified in the decision to stay. she did nothing wrong. her husband did. she doesn't deserve to get an ounce of negative attention for this, and in the end, it is their decision what happens with their marriage going forward.
@theashwoodfaerie i really hope that's not true. staying together "for the kids" is always bad and leads to a *lot* more trauma for the kid than simply getting divorced does. growing up in a broken home is far worse than growing up with a single parent
@@zeebo30that is so far beyond false it's almost laughable. it's been studied and proven that not only do children always prefer their parents to stay married when asked, but they turn out better when raised by two parents, too. the only cases that isn't true is when the parents are actually abusive toward each other or the child/ren.
The fact that a company is taking action when an violates his power and position is commendable. Even if he thought it was consensual, he had power of her and her job and her life basically. I believe the try guys reacted appropriately to the situation removing him from the company.
@@michaelhernandez7978 no one is doing that. people are just pointing out another layer of the issue that justifies his firing. it wouldn’t have been as bad for their brand if the person he cheated with wasn’t his subordinate AND someone the try guys and ariel worked with for years it would probably not even as bad (still deplorable). The reason why it’s common in every cooperate job to disclose relationships, and not engage with romantic encounters with subordinates because consent is dubious sometimes, it’s a better safe than sorry. And if a manager isn’t ready to understand that, that’s worse than a subordinate doing it because they hold less power.
absolutely fuck the paparazzi guy following Ariel around. She's the biggest victim in this along with her children and I have no idea how people can think its okay to follow her around with a camera. While I personally wouldnt stay with someone who cheated, its her choice and I hope shes doing well.
it was veryyyy funny at the time too bc the paparazzi filmed their car plaque and someone found a post on Nextdoor w a picture of the same car and same plaque saying that that there were two people having sex in it in front of a park where a lot of families/children were passing, and said park had appeared in a try guys video a few months back (and Alex and Ned were late in that video so,,,,,) 😭😭😭
Yeah… it was The Hollywood Fix and they’re the paparazzi that you call. They aren’t TMZ so I’m not all that certain that anyone actually was following them around.
I love how you never know for sure what the next TRO video could be about. It just needs to be about months-old contraversy. The next one could be about Colleen Ballinger or about Oceangate. Who can say? I'd love to see the TRO team tackle Illuminaughtii when all the information is out.
The illuminaughtii video is coming out in like three years. Considering all the info that’s still coming out and is anticipated coming out in the future.
I think you missed to say that Ned didnt just cheat on his wife. He had a relationship, casual or not, with a subbordinate. Which could put the try guys company in seeious legal trouple...
yeah, i was scrolling through the comments to find something like this. what happened to alex was a crime. it’s very obvious from the framing of this video that TRO, for whatever reason or another, is deeply uninterested in what happened to alex. when someone is in a romantic or sexual relationship with their boss, their boss can then trap the employee in that relationship by threatening to demote or fire them if they don’t continue the relationship or performing sexual acts for them. that’s highly illegal. we don’t know the details of alex’s side of things. while ned emphasized that it was a “consensual” workplace relationship, plenty of abusers are convinced the person they abused “wanted it.” ned was a company owner, the finance manager, and responsible for hiring and firing. he was the only person with power in that relationship. i am sorely disappointed that this was framed like a story about infidelity and slipping up in a marriage and was more interested in the interpersonal drama between the guys and not about the abuse of power that this woman endured and the horrific online backlash she faced for being a victim. she is one in the eyes of the law regardless of whether or not she consented to this relationship. it’s a frankly misogynistic framing of this story that the blatant abuse of alex was written off and ignored for the sake of centering ned, zach, keith, and eugene. TRO is usually so thorough that i cannot help but feel like this video was phoned in and as a survivor of abuse it’s driving me a little bit insane.
@@GelatinSkeletonIt's not a crime in itself to date a boss/employee, but I understand what you're saying. We don't know how she feels about what happened.
this is what annoyed me most about a lot of people’s responses. as if the infidelity was the worst part. like yes it’s awful he cheated but with an employee? that’s gotta be against code of conduct and is just unethical lol
i think it's weird that people got mad at Ariel for staying. it's not up to us whether she leaves him or not, and it shouldn't reflect badly on her for staying 💀
yeah i don't get being mad at her. worried about her maybe but angry is just so wild to me. she's the victim here, any decision she decides to make about this is compeltely valid because she's the only person who really knows how this is affecting her, hence why my position is just to be worried for her and to hope her choice to stay with him doesn't result in her being hurt further
it was a bit disappointing but at the end of the day, he IS the father of her two children and the decision to break up the family for both of them would have certainly weighed very heavily on her. she probably heard plenty of opinions from her own family and in-laws.
I get why Zac cut off Keith with the "business violation" line, he didn't want the decision to sound personal because the primary issue was her status as an employee. Betraying their trust was fucked up, but a superior having a sexual relationship with a subordinate is ethically and legally much worse.
i despise the narrative that this was "just about cheating". in a professional context, it's the abuse of power as an employer dating an employee that matters. if you control someone's workload, paycheck, and more in the workplace, you cannot date them without an inappropriate power imbalance being there. not to mention that ned himself represented HR, and so it would be harder for alex to hold ned accountable. although i no longer like/support ned, i am happy that his family was seemingly able to heal and move on.
@@ppelguttYes but in the eyes of the law she didn't have any agency that relationship was a huge liability especially if things went sour between Ned and Alex she could have destroyed that entire company
@ppelgutt she most likely did, but let's say she threatened to end the affair at any point and he didn't want snt it to...he could totally threaten her job. Hell, she could easily claim she didn't want to embark on an affair but he DID threaten her job. Its why its not only immoral for someone that higher up to date/have an affair with someone in the workplace, its also incredibly stupid
So, the trial of the try guys was really weird when it first happened because I have been a fan for a few years and I had gotten the date night cookbook for my father. I had pre-ordered it for Father's day of 2021, but it was coming out in september, so I told him that it would arrive when it did. He proceeded to announce his divorce from my stepmom in august, so I had to laugh about it when I got the email that it was going to arrive and I told him what it was and he laughed too. Only to find out in March of the next year is that the reason why they got a divorce was because he cheated on her. ( Needless to say, I took her side of things. He's a jackass.) But then, in September of that same year, the Ned situation dropped. And I had my first out of body experience as all of those pieces came together in a way they never had before.
I recently watched an older without a recipe with my boyfriend (the gingerbread one iirc) and and laughed cause there was a plug for the date night cookbook, which I totally forgot about 😂
I'm surprised you didn't mention that Ned was the acting HR guy at the time as well as part owner in the company. All of which may or may not have had an effect on Alex's relationship with Ned. There's no proof that there was any power weaponized, but it's hard to think it wasn't a factor.
@@ppelguttIt's not speculation though, he was their HR. That's the part that matters. Whether or not he used that to his advantage over Alex, that's like saying, "Yeah but it's fine that they removed all the sprinklers from the building because there wasn't actually a fire. You shouldn't speculate about if there was a fire or not." HR being able to document relationships and provide layers of separation between them at a company is a safety measure. Regardless of intentions, Ned acting as he did removed that safety measure for Alex because he was no longer an unbiased third party to her. It's also worth noting that we don't actually know the extent of Alex's experience because if there is anything more problematic in it, it wouldn't be any of our business and the Try Guys probably wouldn't be at liberty to say anyways. That doesn't mean for sure something else beyond the affair happened between them. But it also means it's inaccurate to ever say that we as the public know for sure the extent of "what went wrong". It's not speculation to say, "What he did put her more at risk and that is unacceptable regardless of whether that risk came to fruit."
@@ppelguttIt's not unreasonable to think there was at least some extent to Ned abusing his power. Which meant Alex couldn't consent fully since he was her boss. And since the guys have said multiple times not to send Alex any hate, it seems like something did go wrong and maybe Alex wasnt the completely villain homewrecker than everyone made her out to be. I do felt bad for her. I still do. There was a ton of racist comments too since she is asian and that's just not right
@@shinyandnotpanicking you mention several times that the public don't know for sure. This is why this case should not be a public matter and why is so very not me and yours case to speculate on. Also, by saying "there we're PROBABLY some foul play and Ned PROBABLY was misusing his power" it seems like you're assuming Alex has no agency. I understand that power dynamics is a thing and it very well could be some power imbalance, but I think there's an equally if not greater chance of Alex just dating this dude for her own selfish reasons- Until the former is proven anyways.
@@ppelgutt I feel like you either did not read or did not comprehend my comment because not once did I use the word "PROBABLY". You're misrepresenting and misunderstanding my argument. My comment was not speculation. Yours which includes "I think there's an equally if not greater chance of Alex just dating this dude for her own selfish reasons" is actually speculation.
I feel like this video completely missed the severity of what happened, as it wasn't simply "cheating" (hence the drama)... Ned was a *founder* of the company and Alex's BOSS. There was a power-dynamic at play in the relationship, that has been either overlooked or ignored entirely. This was the crux of the Try Guys' response, as it's a serious issue for any company (particularly a small, private business); a boss engaging with an employee can lead to far more serious consequences than just a lawsuit. Ned's general behavior in the situation can be viewed as negligent or selfish at best, and predatory at worst. The other aspect of the conversation (which was also never mentioned here), was the "wife guy" influencer personality and the exploitation of one's family as a part of an online identity. Family Vlogs are a more horrific example of this, but nevertheless, Ned involved his entire family in his literal business - involved them with his coworkers, too - without regard to the consequences of that. He took advantage of this aspect of his life to project a façade of morality, responsibility, and devotion; he wielded this mask wantonly, hoping it would shield him from any negative criticism...which is part of why it's so awful. Children should never be used as a shield...family is not a way to hide from your criminal actions (and yes - a superior engaging with an employee CAN have criminal implications).
Usually you really nail every detail in a video, so I’m disappointed that you didn’t mention at all the aspect of Ned cheating with his subordinate employee… which completely changes the entire event and makes sense why he was booted from the company. It wasn’t “just” cheating, it was cheating with his employee whom he had power over.
What a lot of people didn't understand was that the feeling of betrayal was on both sides: the fans and the other try guys, but not 100% for the same reason. As fans, our anger and betrayal stemmed a LOT from being lied to. Ned pretended to be the wife guy, so in love, the perfect husband, and then cheated on his wife. His wife, that was also well loved by fans. Thats why they felt betrayed. While the try guys felt the same betrayal of being lied to, and feeling for his wife, there is a whole other level added to this that makes it a big deal. Ned didnt just cheat on his wife while his public persona was that of the most loving husband, he also decided to cheat with his employee - COMPLETELY disregarding the trust that 3 of his BEST FRIENDS had put into him and completely ignoring the fact that his actions put the whole company into a very uncomfortable legal position. He didnt just cheat on his wife while lying to everybody, he also didnt care that this would not only impact the life of his wife and his child, but also every single employee in that company, along with the owners of the company who are some of his closest and oldest friends. If he had "just" cheated with some random woman no one knew, the internet wouldve come after him - sure. But he put the entireity of the company on pause with every single contributor there worrying about the future of their job and their careers AFTER they already had plenty of issues with buzzfeed in the past and didnt even know if the whole second try thing would work out. They sacrificed a lot for this company, only for one of them to completely disregard all of that effort and struggle and to choose to cheat with their employee of all people.
Not to mention by doing this he didn't only put his career on the line but his wife's as well she was a full-time employee of the company he put his entire family's financial future on the line for seemingly no reason other than an ego thing because clearly he wasn't trying to hide it
@@Maplebear1203 the wives and Matt on the you can sit with us podcast have said that Ariel would be welcomed back with open arms if she ever wanted to return so that’s not super valid. If they did fire her she could definitely sue since she did literally nothing wrong in the situation.
@@BL-sd9mn but he did jeopardise it. did he know how anyone would react to that ? Also how wouuld she feel being in the limelight after all of the dirty was unaired ?
@@BL-sd9mn She totally could come back, but be realistic, if you were in her shoes, even if all of your coworkers supported you and genuinely cared about you, would you want to go back to that sort of environment? an environment where every single person knows exactly what happened to you? I am sure they meant it when they said she could come back, but doing so would take an incredible emotional toll on anyone in that situation, and that is directly due to ned's actions. it's a valid thing to bring up
What did matpat say? Curious because I actually like matpat, looking for more kudos to back him up with when people start slamming him in secret Reddit threads.
I just got back from watching matpats video, it's just on his channel, dunno how I missed it but yeah he got all the points right and get a few digs in at the media at the same time which is always good, just wild to hear him jab at try guys for being Melba toast when matpat hasn't said a swear word in his entire life... I don't even think he knows any 🤣
@@Rowrowfightthepowerfrom my memory he was talking about how media portrayed the situation poorly and with misinformation such as saying Ned cheated with a random woman instead of an employee which is much more problematic for the other guys due to multiple reasons.
Strangely, I do like the Try Guys better now. I never knew what kept me from being a more constant fan of them. I had no idea it was Ned for some reason, but it makes sense now. I could never feel mad at Ariel for staying, though. She seems like a very sweet woman. I'm sad she doesn't seem to be putting herself first, but it's her life and her choice. Disempowering someone who went through what she went through would only be more damaging. She doesn't deserve that. I hope she'll find happiness in the future, and the kids too.
Same, I actually thought Zach was the problem before, but then once Ned got dropped I was able to appreciate all three of the guys more, I think partly because Ned's arguably toxic competitiveness was no longer there. I know it was a huge blow to them both personally and financially, but I think with Ned gone things are even better than before.
I agree with a lot that was said, but I’m also absolutely baffled by the fact that the massive HR hell-scape of a situation wasn’t mentioned at all… other than “workplace violation”… like what? 💀 I couldn’t imagine the absolute horror my workplace would be if something like this happened. I have so much more empathy for the other guys now, poor Zach 💔😭 Still loved the video tho, great work again guys lol xx
14:01 Imagine running into your favorite Internet Celebrity and take a picture with them, not knowing you've just set off the first domino in the tornado of fuck that is going to destroy that celebrity's career, reputation, and marriage.
They may not have orchestrated his downfall but they sure did knock the first domino down. Hell they had no reason to doubt Ned, they were just excited to see their favorite creator in public.
I didnt realise that dude had just been walking around with his side piece in public for months holy shit. Guess he didnt think he was famous enough to be recognized?
I'm shocked he'll go around in public like that. He ain't no Johny Dep level of celebrity, but I think the Try Guys has 8 million subscribers, and I'm sure there are additional people who watches their videos but not subscribed, I'm also assuming that the subscriber's family and friends know about them too, so that must be roughly 10~12 million people who knows about him. I guess he was a dumb guy in the end, even though he went to Yale. Book smart, but not street smart.
@holographicwing Calling her a "doormat" is really judgemental. Her income was also directly tied to the company, and she has two children and now neither her or Ned (as far as we know) has a job anymore. She could've decided due to various constraints it's better to stay with him for now for the stability of the children's lives. Maybe she'll decide in the future to split with him, but it is probably quite literally not a viable option for her at the moment.
@@holographicwingwhat an L take. You don’t know anywhere close to enough to actually judge. If all I ever knew about you was this comment and I still thought I could judge you, I’d probably say you’re an asshole. But I’d guess there’s a lot more to you than that. Anyways, Ariel doesn’t deserve a bunch of strangers online hating on her for making her own decisions in her own private life
@@nicolasnamedI fully believe the try guys would have still allowed her to stay she willingly resigned after this all happened she is being kind of a doormat by staying we all know how close the group was you can't tell me that the other three try guys and their partners wouldn't have supported her and helped her out
I do think this video glances over the fact that a business owner and HR manager was sleeping with a subordinate employee. Ned being the wife guy who was caught cheating was one issue, but because he was a business owner and HR manager in a position of power over his affair partner. It doesnt matter how consensual he says it was. If the other business owners didnt act the way they did, they could have been opened themselves up to other issues and/or lawsuits
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xdid you know that people can click on your profile and see what other comments you have left on this video? So I can see you vehemently and repeatedly defending “company owner and head of hr has an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate” as perfectly fine. I can see you comparing you making more money than your girlfriend to this situation. I think you either have shit to work through, need to improve your critical thinking/reading skills, and/or will have to go through some…remediation HR courses in your future.
The Tri Guys handled this situation wonderfully; they got lawyers involved immediately when they got confirmation from Ned and went from there. I also appreciated how even though Alex was part of this, they made sure Ned was the one that got most of the heat. There was the abuse of power, he put EVERYONE’S job on the line, he was the one married with children, and he was the one that betrayed their decade plus friendship. The fans started noticing changes in their videos and that Reddit leak was gaining traction and that’s when they had to go public. They weren’t going to keep this hidden but they had to handle this LEGALLY first which was brilliant. They honestly had no idea and their demeanors in the explanation video proved that. Ned really didn’t care about his wife, children, their friendship, or the company they built. Then to put a cherry on top of this audacity cake, that freaking SNL skit mocking the entire situation. Ned, you got a lot of nerve letting your buddies at SNL downplay what you did. You’re a clown and uh, good luck explaining yourself when your children get older and they find out via Internet what happened. The Tri Guys were so transparent about this whole thing which is refreshing; men have been brainwashed into thinking they need to be robots even though they are humans created with emotions. Tri Guys are gonna be alright ☺️ what a weird week it was during 2022. This and that fishing tournament where those fishermen were caught cheating finally lol “we’ve got weights in fish! There we go!!”
I was a huge fan of them, but things just aren’t the same anymore. We’re lucky to get two of them in a video together. When it’s all three it’s like a special occasion. To me, the magic was always the four of them and their chemistry together. I think there was a large void left with Ned’s departure. (NOT trying to defend Ned, just think their content has suffered).
@@melissataylor7349 really? i feel like their content has vastly improved after ned's departure. i like some of the people who are making more regular experiences like kwesi and johnny quite a lot. eugene already seemed kind of like he was focusing more on other projects so i'm not surprised about that. i think ned was always the weakest link content-wise and that's kind of what led to him branding himself as the wife guy. eugene is a natural with his sarcastic persona and both zach and keith are much more natural than ned is with comedy. my first reaction to realizing what was happening was "thank god it's ned and not one of the important guys"
@@melissataylor7349 Miles, Kwesi, and Jonny have somewhat filled that hole. Eugene backing off is kind of a separate issue. It does seem like Zach is often stuck playing boss. Still, it isn't right to guilt anyone for doing their projects: they're all important and in the greater try guys sphere and fans will love it or hate it.
As a long time Try Guys fan, I remember being so shocked when I heard about Ned cheating. Not only was I shocked because he's the "my wife" guy, but because it was with an EMPLOYEE. It's insane how SNL tried to make it sound like it was basically nothing, I'm glad people actually recognized how shitty SNL was in that situation. And to be completely honest, I prefer Try Guys without Ned. Idk why, but only after the he left did I realize how annoying and rude he was sometimes. Anyway, I still love Try Guys and I'm annoyed that the older seasons of Without a Recipe (my favourite series on UA-cam) feel weird to watch now
I think what people need to remember when it comes to Ned being forced out of The Try Guys for his affair is that he had an affair with his employee. The wording of "consensual relationship" in Ned's statement was very telling - because his relationship with the employee was a huge liability to 2nd Try LLC and it opened them up to issues with any and all of their employees. The employee he had the affair with could've claimed they felt forced by Ned to have a relationship to keep their job or get promotions/bonuses/special treatment. Other employees could have claimed they'd been slighted or passed over in favour of the employee Ned waa sleeping with. Ultimately, the other guys HAD to let Ned go to protect the brand and company as a whole. To act like this affair was just some meaningless kiss that the guys were overreacting to is disingenuous and makes people claiming that (SNL) seem incredibly stupid. The Try Guys weren't just protecting themselves either, they had over a dozen employees they had to do right by too. Whether they're all still friends isn't really anyone's business but I honestly doubt it - they've all come out and admitted they'd likely have never been friends if it weren't for The Try Guys (except maybe Zach and Keith) and that's okay too, you aren't always friends with people you used to work with/for forever. That's life. But this situation is honestly the best thing to have probably happened for the longevity of The Try Guys and hopefully the Fulmers are happy together and in a better place away from the internet.
I think one of the main issues was that he was a CEO, she was a producer, that power dynamic is a huge HR problem and he was basically the HR. He can claim it was consensual all he wants but the minute she doesn’t they get a lawsuit. Cheating does go against what they stand for but above everything else it was misconduct in the workplace with a crazy power dynamic difference
It's not only the absolute disregard for his wife and child that made this situation horrible and disgusting, it was that he made being the family man his whole personality, like every word out of his mouth was about his wife or being married or how in love he was, he literally made being a married family man his entire identity so to then just go and crap all over it made it next level betrayal and completely exposed what an absolutely fake person he was and no one can ever really recover from that level of mistrust so they definitely needed to get fire him, good riddance
It was actually heartbreaking seeing how disappointed they were. I remember I was just home when my sister sent me the try guys taking a break, I was the one to snoop more and found the cheating allegations. It was just disappointing. I really didn't want to believe it. I may not be one for parasocial relationships, these guys were just a group of guys that were entertaining and sometimes I watched every video, sometimes I wouldn't touch their content for months, but I was able to see their growth. I was able to see how much they tried to do their best outside UA-cam, Eugene going to film and series, Keith doing a Broadway debut and Zack working on creative ideas and movies. So witnessing this complete bucket of cold water over their careers and relationships was something for sure. I'm now enjoying their content very much with just the three of them and the other reoccurring guests. Qwesi, Jared, John, and others have given the channel some light and I'm looking forward to what they will make.
I'm a little confused how this take ignores that what Ned did could have caused a lawsuit. Ned was Alex's boss. It's a massive HR violation and they didn't have an HR at the time. It could have bankrupted the company, which is why I think they were so insistent on everyone leaving Alex alone I've also been told (but have no proof) that Eugene and Ariel were really good friends. Thank you for being firm about Ariel getting to do whatever she pleases and it's no one's business. I hated all the tales saying she should leave him. Like, it's not your business. It's her choice.
The thing about having to basically fire Ned is that he was her boss, inherently having a power dynamic over her, making the whole situation legally risky without acting on it as soon as they were made aware of it
For real, it genuinely feels like this happened a few months ago. For me it's equally weird because my life was in a really different space when this all went down lol, like I distinctly remember coming home from my shift, sitting down to eat dinner and find a video to watch, and news of this being basically the only thing all over my feed. Crazy how it's already been over a year.
This whole thing blows my mind.... Just the fact that he didn't consider or didn't care that WHEN he got caught his entire career/marriage/friendships would be ruined. And he just.... did it anyway. Insane.
I'm wondering if he thought that only his marriage would be in jeopardy. Maybe Ned was thinking that if he got caught everything would be solved privately... Maybe he wasn't expecting the internet to find out. He could've sorted things out with Ariel and hope that she'd stay, and if the internet didn't know he was relying on his friends not firing him. That being said, if he wasn't actually that naïve and he knew the enormous risk he was taking... he's an idiot. Ruining your marriage, career, and closest friendships because you couldn't keep it in your pants is quite an achievement
@@lauraanderson8785 More than that, I think he knew that Ariel wouldn't leave him. This is no diss to Ariel, I really feel for her. However, Ned knows her more than anyone, and he knew that she would stay. Perhaps he wasn't expecting this media outrage, but he knew she would still be on his side. I feel very sad for her. I hope Ned treats her better now, and if he doesn't, well, I hope Ariel is able to figure out her worth. For her, and for her children.
the thing i found ridiculous about this situation was the media and how they blew it out of proportion and then, when the try guys took the bait and reacted, the media acted like it was the guys over-reacting. They can't have their cake and eat it too. Had they not have said anything they'd have been accused of feeding into the culture of men never calling their male friends out on questionable behaviour.
I think everyone let Alex slide. She messed up her own engagement and her bf was just tossed to the side. Everyone says she could have been worried about her job if she spoke up. But that mean either the company and the guys made such a bad work environment that the employees felt like they couldn’t go to someone or she was 100% consenting adult wanting to cheat. 🤷🏼♀️ it’s either one or the other. So either the guys are bad bosses or she’s just as crappy as Ned and deserves the same treatment.
@user-xr7ci8tf3e I mean, that's implying he was the one to peruse her and not vice versa. Obviously that wouldn't make it any better for Ned, he's a married man and would need to say no- but you're making some assumptions.
Think how comfortable he felt with the whole thing. Alex knew his family. She knew his co owners. Yet, he felt incredibly comfortable pursuing her/accepting her advances. Ned was fully convinced his friends would have backed him up, or at least his behavior shows that. So why do you think she would have felt safe? Regardless of them as bosses, it is still complicated. While yes, she is not entirely innocent, woman in this situations tend to get it incredibly worse. Hell, look, Ned is living life with his millions, and Ariel didn't even leave. Alex left the company with no hope of being able to pursue appearing on camera ever again, with no cushy backing and her fiancee left. I think she got enough.
After watching the entire video it feels like a massive waste of time. You appear to be trying to protect both sides, which to me always feels odd when only one party is at fault. I hope Ariel finds happiness, with or without Ned. But I would be surprised if they kept in contact with Ned. Very surprised in fact. This is not, as Zach is talking about in your final bit, a one off thing. Or a small fling on the side. Or a situation where the party came back remorseful. It is a long term relationship, where both parties are either married or betrothed to others, and where Ned is actively risking everything by doing this with someone who's his employee, and where he got caught after several months. Should she want to, she could ruin them by suing the company. If I had a friend who risked ruining everything I've spent a decade building, and who betrayed my trust by letting me find out via social media several months after it started, I'd never want to see them again. Old memories would be tainted, and I'd have to move on. If I was also friends with his wife, that would just make me despise the guy. I'm glad the trio moved on, as much as they could.
I 100% agree tbh. For beng a bloated 1+ hour video TRO misses all the most important points, like the entire legal side of the shit situation Ned put the whole company in, and I really despise the final part in which he was sort of fence sitting on cheating. Anyone is free to make shit choices, like staying with a cheating clown like Ned, but they're still shit choices, and taking the disrespect like that is not gonna bring anyone happiness, especially the children.
@@DeadKraken The children will only feel the effect if there's resentment in the relationship. I hope there isn't, but who knows. Generally, children have a better childhood with both parents there, I'm guessing that's her rationale.
@@AdamPersson We are all human, how are you not gonna feel resentment towards the dude you married and dedicated your life to(literally, she renounced to her career lol), cheating on you for months while you were pregnant and caring for 2 other kids, and after that the same dude has also ruined her podcast job, her friendships and fucked up their income. That's simply not possible. He's also gonna do it again, since he's seen she's ok with being publicly humiliated like that. Children have better childoods with good parents, single, 2 or 3+, the important is that they're good. Having 2 people screech at each other 24\7 or silently hating each other and be unhappy all the time, is not good. That's why it's a very shit decision. I say this as the daughter of a horrid couple that I intensely wished would divorce and let me live in peace, but unfortunately never did.
THANK YOU FOR THIS COMMENT. An hour in and I’m very confused why he’s saying “wouldn’t be surprised if they stayed friends” and stuff like that almost defending Ned. What he did was terrible he cheated on his wife with an employee, damaged the family’s career, damaged the brand, and so much more. Obviously he doesn’t deserve millions of people attacking him, but he deserves criticism and TRO keeps almost appearing to defend Ned, I’m very confused and almost Ed grossed out
How is he protecting both sides? He says what Ned did was wrong, but he's right that there are many people widely forgiven that have done far worse. If he can move past this as a non-public figure good for him and if his friends forgive him, that's their choice. You don't get to judge the victims in this scenario for how they choose to handle it, it isn't your fucking business.
Ned had a relationship with his own employee, he was the boss. That unhealthy and unethical power dynamic is often not consensual, which i suspect is why he was defensive.
I think a lot of people dismiss cheating. If you've ever been cheated on you know how heart retching it is. It can be emotionally devastating. Sure, everybody reacts differently to it but this guy was MARRIED, he had CHILDREN and he cheated with and EMPLOYEE. Fuck that noise to all hell.
Few things: Ned and his girlfriend did actually commit a crime. They were engaging in adult activities outside in a car parked next to the sidewalk with clear windows during the day when kids were walking about. The SNL skit was probably the producer’s friend trying to save her job by downplaying what she did. It didn’t work. If I had to speculate, I would guess, given the evidence, they used company money to further their affair and/or manipulated other staff into not reporting their behaviour. That’s probably part of the legal stuff. Thirdly, the thinkpieces were upper middle class to rich people being absolutely horrified your friends could hold you accountable and drop you for cheating. Some people value ethics. Some people don’t. The reason cheaters aren’t friends is because they don’t want to constantly worry their partner is cheating on them, because they are (often! Not always!) manipulative and terrible people. I don’t see a months-long affair as a mistake, especially as brazen as it was at the end. If your public persona hinges on ethics, and then you reveal you think ethics are a joke… that’s being fired for cause. You are no longer meeting your job requirements. Lastly, I think it’s absolutely fair for people to feel betrayed and drop you for lying to them and deliberately deceiving them(???) and the backlash to their response is very, very blatant tone policing.
Cheating is horrible but the blatant way they did it so publicly is what grosses me out the most. In the car, out at clubs, out at restaurants for all to see... they thought they were untouchable and held complete disregard for their families, careers, friends, and fans.
also something i think i remember from the podcast video is zack saying to keep in mind that everyone fucks up, and that the average person has the luxury to fuck up in pirvate, but public image people have peoples faces and cameras on them when THEY fuck up, and to keep that in mind going forward, which is incredibly mature and and compassionate especially that early on in the drama
man, I remember finding about this. Along with the entire internet I felt so bad Ariel and just plain disappointed in Ned. The other guys did a good job with that video, they covered all their bases. Oof. Watching their Cooking Without a Recipe where they had to edit Ned out, it was both funny and annoying, knowing how much work the editors had. And whole videos that will never see the light of day, as well as that big project on a network, I think, they were working on
One thing I kind of dislike about some peoples take on the situation is them saying “I never liked Ned anyways, so good riddance”. Before the Try Guys company and channel was established, Ned definitely was the least liked and seen as a perfectly bad mix of boring and abrasive. However as the Try Guys released more personal content, with Ned focused videos that showed parts of him like why he valued (or supposedly valued, in retrospect) his wife so much as a person, as well as him battling an injury that very well could’ve led him to having an opioid addiction, and his personal fitness journey, fans all got to know him better and I’d say up until the scandal, he was on the same level as the other guys as far as likability. With all that in mind, you can really see why the scandal was so earth-shattering and disappointing for fans of the Try Guys and especially Ned. It wasn’t just seeing the worst member of a group go, it was seeing a creator that we had all gotten to know and relate to, basically destroy his entire positive image and character.
Yep, and don’t forget that not only did they make their very first series on their new channel about the buildup to Ned and Ariel’s first child being born, but their first Try Guys office was also actually situated in Ned and Ariel’s old house! I don’t think it can be emphasized enough how integral Ned was to their emergence from Buzzfeed as a distinctive and successful brand. But I also want to emphasize how many people looked up to Ned as a role model for being a good husband and father (not to mention an example of a straight white male who knew how to check his privilege)….remember when he simulated childbirth for 14 hours to simulate Ariel’s childbirth experience? Don’t get me wrong, he definitely was the most aggressive one and arguably the most polarizing from the start. But he was also smart and energetic and seemed like the most complex of personalities at times, in a way that was often quite entertaining and endearing. So I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of the Try Guys story to act as if no one was a fan of him. And indeed, at least for me, even as I am proud of how the Tri Guys weathered this storm, I also find it important to remember why the scandal was so shocking and even heartbreaking in the first place.
Yes! I see these people as the same that always say that they saw plot twists coming. No you didn't, and it's okay. Do I see now that Ned was sometimes throwing tantrums and disrespected others? Yes. Did I see it back then? No. Does the fact that I really bought into his "wife and family guy" persona make his cheating even more like an almost personal betrayal? Definitely.
Ned was definitely had the worst personality overall. I’m sure he was relatable for a certain demographic of the viewership tho. He’s very intelligent and I think his perspective was fine. The channel has definitely pivoted since his firing and in the best of ways.
@@TH2714Or maybe they saw it coming & you didn't. There's no perfect liar. Any time a scumbag pretends to be good person, some people will see through it.
I've seen so many people go "Oh, they had to have known, it was so obvious!" Lemme tell you, I have been through a betrayal very similar to this, involving someone who literally lived in my house, and I had no idea until everything blew up. Most people in my community had no idea and were also blindsided. Manipulators are really good at persuading people to assume the best. All of their emotional reactions were exactly what my friends and I went through. It rings so real to me. I appreciated their vulnerability and openness about the betrayal; my community was not so open, and the piece of crap is now in power in another place where he can betray even more people.
I think you really understated the part about how Ned had a affair with a subordinate!!! Thats why he was so defensive about it being "Consensual" because it cant really be consenting if one person is in a position of power over the other - i also think the SNL skit really downplayed this portion too
Not every relationship with a power dynamic is inherently wrong. For God's sake there are perfectly fine relationships occurring between managers and employees in offices across the world. It's insanely common. If you have no evidence of the power dynamic being used to actually manipulate the person just stop trying to overblown shit and get some real world perspective.
@@user-bo1sl7gs9x people beating their kids is also really common but that doesn't make it okay ahjfsdjhfh a healthy relationship needs to be on the basis that both people are equals, which ned and alex were not within the kind of relationship they had
@@gummycats I make more money than my girlfriend. And we live in my apartment. Im therefore totally responsible for her living situation. This is a total power imbalance. But guess what it's totally fine because I'm not actually using this power to exploit or coerce anyone. There are no perfectly equal relationships. A relationship between a manager and an employee has the POTENTIAL to be extremely coercive. But it's perfectly common for both parties to be totally responsible in engaging with a relationship with a power dynamic.
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xthe employer thing is more serious than just money - it's not just the paycheck, it's your health insurance, your relationships with *all* of your coworkers, your references if you leave the company that can affect getting a job after as well as opening that employer to give preferential treatment or a quid pro quo kinda deal it's just a *lot* of authority and theres a reason most companies have strict policies about it
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xtotally agree with you. People making a big deal about some 'power dynamic' are really reaching to make an issue out of nothing. Workplace relationships are a totally normal part of life. I feel bad for his wife, she's the one that was cheated on.
Nice video overall but i agree with the sentiment of many others who commented, saying that it would have been good to explicitly note, and maybe add a section to the video that Ned was a boss/owner and Alex was a subordinate and how that was inappropriate/could have had legal ramifications.
I think people need to remember that he wasn’t fired for cheating on his wife, he was fired for having an inappropriate sexual/romantic relationship with a subordinate.
Maybe in a while TRO can tackle the whole SMOSH saga. Just for that feel good end to a story for once. It is a very interesting story with a lot of twists and turns too.
Also I’m unsure if it’ll ever come but the downfall of John Swan would really be appreciated as well. Idk if TRO would want to even cover that topic. He was my third favorite “documentary” creator behind both TRO and Jaubrey.
I remember as the news broke I went to my friend, showed her some tweets, and said "Looks like Ned cheated." She straight up answered "No, he couldn't have, he would never." I was shocked lmao. I think at that point the photos hadn't been released but suspicions were really high, like literally the next day we had proof. I'll never forget it because that friend is super smart and generally perceptive, but that (parasocial) bond and belief in Ned being a real "family man" really got her to believe he would never hurt his wife like that. Talk about a betrayal of trust.
The word "consensual" in Ned's statement is simply a matter of legality. It needs to be in there to confirm that he was not using his authority as Alex's boss to coerce here into something.
I genuinely cut ties with snl after their handling of that sketch. It just hurt. How completely off base they were, how they were punching down, using their gay asian actor to punch down another gay asian actor….and it wasn’t even funny?! It was juvenile and tone def to the hundreds of sexual misconduct allegations piling up at their doors since the 70s! It was THE MOST boomer meets incel vibes 🤮 and that was the final nail in the coffin. Way overdo honestly. I support the try fam over that crew 💯
So, their explanation video was interesting - I could tell that it felt acted, because it of course had to be, they had to have decided beforehand on what to say and how to say it in order to do damage control, so that is very fine. But then I also had the thought "Hey, a man in a high leading position got fired for having an affair, for cheating in his marriage, it is actually quite nice to see this being treated so seriously." .... and then the SNL skit happened, and it was like, ahh back in the cynical world
Just now realizing I was basically married to a Ned. Constant fawning, bragging, cheesy posts, etc. Meanwhile messing with someone else's wife. 😂 I was only spared it being a huge, public event with years of footage to haunt you forever. Best day of my life was getting tf outta there!
One of the things that annoyed me about the SNL skit was the lack of acknowledgment of the destructive nature of Ned’s affair. It wasn’t just him being the unfaithful “Married Guy” it was a boss having an affair with an employee. That was a business destroying affair. That is the type of affair where, if things have been different, the company could have been at risk due to this inappropriate action. Ariel was betrayed by Ned in the most intimate way, but Ned put the other Try Guys and EVERY employee of their company at risk. I was repulsed that Ned cheated after being the “Wife Guy” but my thoughts were Ariel is the one who has to forgive or not in their marriage, whereas Zack, Keith, and Eugene had to decide what to do as friends and business partners. They could not remain business partners, but I would not blame them for their friendships because many of them are friends with Ariel and they can do what they want.
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Been waiting For Your take on this 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Quick question, if you have a son and he becomes a priest, do you have to call him father?
This has kept me awake for days
@@JavaScrapper In the church, most likey. But not outside the doors of it.
@@xavierwolf4827 alright thanks
Fun fact: the try guys dropped their initial response video on my wedding day. I have a funny picture of my wife in her dress and bridesmaids around her watching her phone in awe.
that's amazing lmfao
That's cute lol
No offence but how old are you all lol
what a cool snap in time, that’s awesome
They did truly mark a generation - also congrats on your marriage!
I can never get over how absolutely pissed Eugene looks during their address. He looks like hes actively planning Neds murder
Base on what I know Eugene was the person who introduce Ariel to Ned.
thts because he hangs out with their wives a lot like outside of work nd stuff so from what i know since he introduced ariel’ to ned he might feel a way.
There's absolutely zero chance that they didn't know about this for a long time. No chance.
literally the definition of "if looks could kill"
@@Lksz-l9kexpect they didn’t know they found out through a fan and barely had time to figure out to fix the damage
Ned's biggest problem was how much he marketed himself as "the married one" and then "the family man". Plenty of other celebrities and UA-camrs have done much worse and been forgiven, but when your entire identity is loving your wife and kids cheating is way more of an issue to fans.
I don't know about being forgiven it's just that it doesn't really matter to Hollywood executives and plenty of people when people don't have good morals or values. The difference here is that the team does have good morals and values and they would have done something no matter what fans thought.
@Angelface11 I definitely agree that the Try Guys would have removed him regardless, I just mean that if Ned's whole career wasn't based off of being "the loving husband" the controversy wouldn't have blown up as much as it did.
@@blue-qh5yeYeah if there's one thing people love its roasting a hypocrite
Not only that but Ariel was absolutely beloved by fans as well. People loved her way more than Ned.
Can we call it the degeneres effect? Like nobody would have cared if she was kind of a jerk if she didn’t build her whole persona as being super nice.
idk why people treat this as a simple "bros before hoes" average situation. This was a boss and employee! a multimillion-dollar business! a business that relies on an online status. it's refreshing to actually see these famous influencers actually take something seriously and treat it as it should be treated and addressed online
Completely! Not only does this video gloss over that aspect, but it also seems to have completely missed the point that Zach, Keith, and Eugene are not just three guys who make videos with their friend, and now they don't. They're the owners of a company with dozens of employees, including their own family members, who were very aware of how damaging this could be to their brand and their company and were actively trying to avoid this issue ruining the lives/livelihoods of everyone at 2nd Try.
Wait till you hear about Hillary's husband.
Also in that situation ariel would be their bro so 😤
@@hammondOT???? Do you think anyone concerned about Ned Fulmer doesn't recognize that Bill Clinton did bad shit too?? UA-cam comment sections are so fucking weird
@@obsessivefanboy I know right? UA-cam is so different than reddit!
It boggles my mind that people thought Keith, Zach & Eugene were overreacting. All I can figure is that those people haven’t been following the Try Guys from the beginning like I have. Legal stuff, arguments and money aside - these four guys had worked so closely for 8 or more years, attended each others weddings & baby showers, traveled to Australia and all over the US. They banded together to leave buzzfeed and protect their creative properties. How would Ned’s actions not feel like a stab in the back and a gut punch all at once? The amount of people that lack empathy scares me.
I think hollywood underplays infidelity ("it is something everyone does!") so when the try guys took it seriously it was suprising.
If Id found out that a long term friend of mine had chosen the path to cheat, and with a subordinate, Id also be just a bit more than upset.
I had a very good friend who very nonchalantly announced she had slept with a mutual friend's fiance multiple times. Then she was outraged when I "judged" her for it. The 'judgement' was me saying "I wish you didn't tell me that". I've never seen her the same since and I just let that friendship die. It was disgusting how little empathy or feeling she had for the mutual friend she betrayed. It turned my stomach and I'm not a liar so I couldn't pretend to be her friend after that.
I think they were overreacting 🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️
@irishhoopers6899 I would do the same because you don't know if she'll go behind you back. My best friend has slept with girls who have boyfriends and he slept with a friends gf they weren't super close but still judged him but not much you can do it's their choice. At least I know he'd never steal my bf's 😂😅
For me the most infuriating part of this was the fact that Ned didn’t just fuck up his own company, he also lost his family’s entire income because Ariel was a full time employee of the company as well. She starred in two of the podcasts as well as appearing in tons of videos. She’d been an interior designer before but after having two of Ned’s kids she started focusing on working on the UA-cam channel because of course she would. So when Ned was cheating with his subordinate he wasn’t just endangering his own job, but also his wife’s. Real selfish asshole behavior.
And the fact that they did it brazenly and openly?! It’s almost like they wanted to get caught like what the hell?!
@@meganhill453I would guess they wanted to flaunt it but only they could elaborate why.
Well i think financially theyll be fine, they’re millionaires
@@perfor5376Depends on how the money is settled after divorce (if they do divorce).
Ariel was born rich, she’s not hurting for money.
The high of getting an hour long video on Ned’s fall
The low of realising you’ll have to see that dire SNL skit again
Oh god you just reminded me that thing exists. I'm terrified now
It’s still so awful. Cringed so hard I felt my ears move
My exact journey
Watching it for the first time with the in depth context beforehand was a frustrating and pretty nauseating experience. Turning such a tense, carefully worded response in to a Jake Paul style clout chasing mock-up was disappointing even when I expected no better from SNL.
I’m 50/50 on the conspiracy stuff; it’s just as possible SNL is just that shallow, esp cuz it was a viral topic.
God the snl skit 😢
The SNL part frustrates me because they misrepresented the situation. Ned didn’t just have a fling with some side chick. He had a at least months long affair with an employee! He put them not only in a hr nightmare but tricky legal situation. There’s an argument that the employee can’t consent because of the power dynamic.
Yeah that skit was super tone deaf.
Honestly, the fact that in an industry like TV, where there are constant stories about subordinates being taken advantage of, the fact that SNL decided to misrepresent the situation like that seems super sketchy to me. Like, who are you covering for there? Why side with the man who did something Very legally dicey and immoral? Makes you ask some questions about what the higher ups of that show think about having inappropriate relationships with people who might not consent due to hierarchy
His friend from college is a writer for SNL and he wrote the sketch. Awful.
And he did it in public, which hurt their brand as a group of non toxic friends.
@@roseyoung44 Ik TRO briefly mentioned it and that it has been brought up a ton, but the fact the higher ups at SNL have similar accusations against them and they made that skit speaks VOLUMES to me.
The argument that Ned shouldn't have been fired because "cheating" is not a firable offense is wild.
He had an affair with a subordinate. MOST companies would have fired or demoted the people in involved. In this case, Ned's entire brand was being a devoted loving husband. He ruined that brand AND showed that he wasn't responsible enough to be in management position. Removal was completely reasonable. They're lucky no lawsuits have been brought up for favorable treatment or hostile work environment.
To be clear though: usually the woman is fired and the man gets a demotion/slap on the wrist, so good for them for not pulling that ish.
I agree but you can shit or crap on UA-cam.
It's really not wild. You, as almost everyone else in these comments, are just deflecting responsibility of a girl pursuing a married man solely onto the married man because you don't actually believe in female agency despite the "female empowerment" rhetoric we have going on nowadays. Not to mention that male cheating is completely different from female cheating; females owe sexual exclusivity in relationships while males owe resource provision. If Ned was spending his family money on gifts for the other girl then he was cheating, but mere kissing or sexual activity is not
@shadowpathfinder7723 He was the Director of Human Resources, and she was an employee (i.e a Human Resource). This is not about sex/gender roles. If he was not fired, they could have been sued by Alex (the producer).
@@shadowpathfinder7723your definition of cheating is not a common one at all. Sexual activity definitely falls under cheating for most people. Your definition of a relationship is not common as well. I don’t know what you were taught or raised with but that is definitely not the common view.
@@shadowpathfinder7723 low-quality bait
You completely ignored the main issue. He had an affair with an EMPLOYEE. This is why it was so serious and gross. No business with integrity would stand for it.
Exactly. This is the main and one of the MOST important parts of the whole controversy. Ned abused his power and shattered the trust of everyone around him. And Alex's husband's too. My heart breaks for their families
Oh cool so this video IS a waste of time. Thanks!
And his whole schtick and brand was of a loyal loving husband. Even his toy resembling him would say “my wife” he profited off being a good husband for his videos and even did a seminar on a loving marriage
yeah he also just buys into their defence that “they could get sued” which sounds like complete bullshit
"gross" Opinion discarded.
making ned a literal elephant in the room is honestly the funniest response
That absolutely killed me. That was when I knew they'd be ok, and still make great videos.
@@SaintJoihonestly ive been enjoying the new videos more without him. Its sad that Eugene can’t be more present, but Keith and Zach are really shining, and they’ve had some wonderful guests on
@SaintJoi it gave me hope for sure but then the content notably dipped for me and never got it quite back again
They also made him a chicken at least once 😂
I'm actually not from the Try Guys community but got really tired of the drama in the Supermega community over... bullshit, let's say, and decided to find out about this drama in September since I'd never watched the Try Guys before. And oh man, I get why people got invested. So interesting in seeing this from an outside perspective (with less personal hurt/bias) but I can say that the remaining 3 guys handled the situation as flawlessly as they possibly could.
The angle I'm surprised you didn't take is that Ned didn't just have an affair, he had an affair with an *employee.* They had to fire him, it was an incredible abuse of power that could have gotten them into a ton of trouble if Alex decided to sue.
Felt like that was really glossed over. In terms of removing him, they really didn't have many options if they wanted to protect themselves from someone else's stupid actions.
In terms of an HR move it was the right decision, but let’s be real: they are both consenting adults. She’s a grown woman, not a child. Women can be simply bad people on their own, they’re not a pillar of morality.
@@CaulkMonglerthis isn't about Individual responsibility it's a matter of feminist ideology , biased courts and media. A woman having an affair with her boss can sue any company into the ground with just a few faked charges and the courts will believe her 99% of the time whilst the media will drag the company through the mud.
For this very reason highly competitive companies avoid employing women at all cost as they are a massive liability in today's legal systems.
@@KT-pv3klyikes, dude
I was surprised by this as well, waited the whole video for him to bring it up. It’s a major factor in my opinion and the reason why so many people reacted the way they did.
Yeah. We didn’t give Zach enough credit before this. He has always been very emotionally intelligent and mature. He has a lot of wiadom.
He’s always been my favorite as a fellow person with chronic pain. He presents himself as a whole being rather than one part of his personality unlike *the other one*. He’s mature and calm
wiadom
wiadom :D
This made me smile
@@kotabee3630same. His series discussing and coping with chronic illness was comforting...knowing you're not alone in it.
He's become my favorite. The Buzzfeed videos made him seem dour, but he's a delight.
I think it’s important that Ned was the producers boss and HR. Even in a consensual relationship, Ned held more power and the employee he cheated with didn’t have a clear person to go to if she felt stuck. Regardless of intention, that power dynamic makes any relationship one that can easily and inadvertently become toxic. Partners need to be equals so everyone chooses to be there only because they want to be, power dynamics like boss/employee make that so so difficult. It was an unethical relationship outside of the fact he was breaking his partners trust
I think the cheating also showed the internal flaws of the business. There weren’t enough accountability systems in place in case HR (Ned) did something inappropriate in the workplace. It was a wake up all that they needed to ensure their workplace was one where employees has many ways to raise concerns, not just one person over HR. Again, not saying the relationship was intentionally coercive or anything, we can’t know what the relationship looked like. And, with how seemingly easily this happened it showed a system that could be used in harmful ways without accountability. They needed to create better employee supports so something like this, or worse, couldn’t happen again as easily or go on for so long
Bottom line: it left them open for any employee who felt slighted to sue. They could say they never had a shot at better assignments/opportunities b/c he favored his lover. His actions violated his fiduciary obligation to the company which is pretty standard expectations in the founding docs.
Most relationships have power imbalances and always will. Also who has power is an ephemeral and difficult to define thing where age, wealth, and seniority are very imperfect predictors. Who has the real power? The professor with a career and family to lose, or the undergrad who faces few dire life changing consequences? Seen that way a lot of our assumptions get uprooted.
@@shawnkilpatrick48393 months late but I appreciate nuance m however in this case I think the power imbalance was well defined and dang near black and white. Boss and HR guy cheating with their subordinate, one who may have felt an ungodly amount of pressure to make this guy happy.
Not just unethical, illegal too. Sexual misconduct is a civil crime.
I feel the worst for Ned’s kids, who must wonder about the community of people that are no longer in their lives. Loving aunts and uncles they had and are no longer around.
considering how close they all were i’m sure the guys are still in ariel’s life, just not ned’s.
@@duckydae i really hope that’s the case
More crazy as they get older they are going to see how their parents personal life was once on the internet
Knowing about your parents afair is already hard, but having the whole story blasted on the internet and tv will be awful once they grow up, like your dad cheated on your mom and now there's a 1 hour video on a random commentary channel about it
I think people are surprised because most people assume men aren’t going to care about their friend cheating. Props to these guys. They have morals.
I never understood why people considered them overreactive. They can't win. If they hadn't done this, they would have been "typical males co-signing their bro being a bro" - not to mention they are also employers in this situation; how many people wished they worked for an employer that took the risk of workplace sexual harassment this seriously?
I agree with your point, and I think another layer is that he did his cheating in public and was caught out by fans. He jeopardized their brand, which is all of their livelihood and their passion.
Dismissing their reaction as "trying to save viewers" as if that's not a good enough reason is as ridiculous as saying a lawyer not taking an obviously losing case is "just trying to save other clients"
This is their business, and their friend put it at risk and that alone is enough reason to be pissed off
@morrighan8787 Well... those are two types of people. Someone's always gonna think you're wrong. The people with loose morals who think men are allowed to do anything they want to women are the ones who thought they were overreactive and they would have loved it if they hadn't done this. But once you start catering to that crowd, you're pretty much over.
The way they responded made me sob. Because I wish the church would have taken this much of a moral stance against all the shit they push down and cover up. These three men have more integrity that all of the church leaders I grew up with.
@@beckiadriaanse6312 not ti mention it was incredibly inappropriate for one of the faces of the company to be cheating with a worker that he had at least some authority over.
Kinda weird to ignore the whole thing where Ned was her boss. Like, he had to be fired because regardless of apparent consent, he was her fucking boss.
Emphasis on the fucking 😏
Not to mention Ned was essentially HR so even if she did feel pressured she had nowhere to go
@@hoaxygendude, we're talking about consent and abusive power dynamics here. Not really the time or place for jokes like that.
@@irlenananyou’re gonna tell me with all those times they were happily going out and about, that it wasn’t consensual? not everything is abusive. Someone can want to have an affair with their boss
@@irlenananWrong: this is the _perfect_ time for jokes like that.
At least in Team 10 Jake was open about being a jerk. Ned tried to act like he was a wonderful human and that’s so yucky.
Yucky is a perfect descriptor
fr, it feels way worse when the good guy turns out to be an asshole
Every human beings has their faults
@@Kevlar333 When people have faults, especially faults that cause direct inconvenience or harm to themselves or others, they should obviously work on those faults for self-betterment and social reasons, not have them excused indefinetely because "everyone has them".
@@Kevlar333 cheating is a detriment to the person committing it. a lack of self-respect and decency. 'fault' is laughable, he committed both harm to others and self-sabotage, and that itself is disgusting if you know there are people who care about you.
I find it astonishing that despite it being a core part of the story you didn't mention at all that the reason they had to fire Ned was because it was an inappropriate workplace relationship. It was an abuse of power because even if they were friends Ned had a sexual relationship with his employee. That not only leaves the whole company at jeopardy legally but also creates a distrustful and unsafe workplace environment. That is why the had to fire him. There's no room for debate. If Ned had cheated on a person outside of the company the response and outcome would've been totally different. (They probably would've separated ways tbh). Your lack of highlighting this crucial aspect suggests that maybe you didn't understand the whole situation or also feel that these workplace relationships are acceptable. Apologies for the rant.
absolutely!! i was pretty damn shocked that this was left out when it was THE reason why ned was fired from the company. the relationship ned had was not only unethical but in terms of workplace/labor laws, technically illegal. them not firing ned and taking the steps that they took could’ve opened them up to a massive sexual harassment lawsuit, one that could potentially bankrupt them and not only affect their livelihoods but their employees’ as well. ned being fired was a non-negotiation, it legally needed to happen. that’s why i also found the snl skit to be so disgusting. it treats this sort of thing as one big joke and given snl’s history with sexual harassment/sexual assault/power abuse in their company and their multiple lawsuits regarding the manner, i’m not even surprised they wrote that skit the way they did. i’m honestly shocked that TRO left this out, since it was the sole reason why this drama was as big of a deal as it was
@@sorryoutlandish This!! Exactly!!! Like there is no point of speculation of did they do the right thing or take it too far?! They legally HAD to make this decision
Yeah I’m a little disappointed that that is totally absent from this. This video has zero analysis, says a lot without saying anything at all. Ned was signing that girl’s paychecks. He not only violated a contract, he violated a contract that he wrote as the HR lead for the company. Full stop! Any company would have fired him. I also think it’s slightly unkind to the remaining try guys to not understand that even if it was just a normal affair, it was a business venture owned between friends. They all had equal stock financially in the company, and behavior that damages the brand of the company is a massive financial and livelihood risk for both the guys and their employees. They were more than correct in their decision to fire him. This was largely a MeToo scandal above all else.
Thank goodness you regurgitated what 20 other comments already pointed out! This comment section would’ve been lost without your copy & paste opinion, that mirrors what everyone else is saying.
@@isitoveryet9525Thank goodness you regurgitated what 40 other commenters pointed out in the replies and that you understand why 20 different commenters are repeating this! The replies would have been lost without your comment that adds nothing to the conversation altogether.
I hated how so many ppl saw nothing wrong with what he did. 1. He was her boss, theres already a power dynamic. 2. His whole image was being a loving husband, but went and cheated. 3. Getting cheated on or cheating is already horrible in general. 4. I actually liked Ariel she seemed down to earth and nice. If you see nothing wrong with any of that idk what to tell you 🤷♀️
plus he has young kids.
Don't forget how blatantly public he went about and did the actual cheating when they're all public figures in a sense
It's still wild to me how so many people in "mainstream" media treated this like it was a petty spat or he was cheating on a gf or something. He had a wife, he had children, that's devastating. I feel like the rest of the guys treated it with the seriousness it deserved, and getting mocked for that still ticks me off. We can't all live off of cynicism and sarcasm forever.
Not to mention he put hundreds of people's of jobs on the line all for his own ego and pleasure especially if Alex had decided to sue the company post affair it wasn't only his job on the line but all of his friends his wife's because she worked full time for the company too and every single employee that works at that company if he had cheated with some random woman I do believe he would have been removed from videos but not from the company this man risked his entire family's well-being and financial future for temporary fun and pleasure
that last sentence is so good
It was also a way for dude who wrote for SNL who never liked Ned to get some payback.
not to mention he was her boss. that's a *huge* legal issue waiting to happen, no matter how consensual it may have been
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it is ultimately a trivial thing
I really hated how so many people didn’t get why it was so fucked up. Like yes. He cheated on his wife. That sucks already. It’s awful. But the fact it was an EMPLOYEE below him is why it was such a huge issue. I can’t believe how many people I saw defend Ned. And even Alex. Like wtf
What exactly is bad about the fact that she worked under him, is it the power dynamic of a boss/ employee? Cuz it really doesn’t seem like he abused his power to get into this affair
@@Thundersz yah completely that and regardless of whether it was 'consensual', it was Ned's job as her boss and as a person who could cause huge financial liability to all the people he's working with to stop his behavior
not only that but ned WAS their HR department. if there was an issue like she felt pressured to stay with him to keep her job she would have no one to go to. they are lucky ned didn’t act more predatorily. yes it seems like she was okay with the affair and dating her boss but what if she wasn’t?
@@h3ll0k1ttygirlie I don’t particularly like Ned or the try guys but I don’t think he would be the type of guy to hold it against her or mistreat her for wanting to end the affair. People are acting like he abused her just because he had an affair with his employee that was consensual. He didn’t mistreat his employee so I really don’t think this is a valid criticism against him especially when there’s a lot of other stuff you can hold against him
This was my thought too - he was her boss. There is a ton of power dynamics at play there, whether or not it was completely consensual (which it totally could have been.) Most companies have clauses in your contract that you cannot date or have relationships with people who work below you because it opens you up to a ton of legal liability. Whether or not it was consensual, it was a violation of his position as her boss to begin a relationship with her, whether it’s an extramarital affair or not.
Around the time this came out, Zach, Eugene and Keith were noticeably stressed out in their podcast. After the fact they couldn't say much for obvious reasons, but it sounds like it was really awful and stressful for them to go through, and they felt isolated not being able to talk about it. It was clear the betrayal was not only professional but personal and it hurt them all deeply. I think they handled this as well as anyone possibly could have. That Saturday Night Live sketch was absolute trash (but uh what else is new about SNL I guess?)
im not through the doc yet so TRO might touch on it, but i think its very interesting that ned is friends with someone who wrote the sketch. at least thats what ive heard. cant confirm it, but that might explain why it was so wildly off the mark.
edit: yep, he touched on it. so its mainly a theory. ppl seemed so certain about it. i could see it, though.
Something off with getting butt hurt over somebody elses marital problems. These people need to take a good look at their own personal lives if their friend/coworkers fling hurts their feelings that much. It's not normal.
@@FourteenWords-n4l His image and reputation was part of the business, aside from their personal feelings, it would have been an awful business decision to keep him especially cause they could've been sued
not to mention that they're all friends with ariel and would obviously have emotions about her HUSBAND, also their friend, CHEATING ON HER.@@Milkgurgle
@@FourteenWords-n4l They were also friends with his wife.
Lol at his apology: "Family should have been my prority, but I lost focus..." as if you have to constantly concentrate to remember that you're married with children
Have you ever been in a relationship before? This comment reads like you haven’t
@@michaelh13 Have you? lmao. I have been in several, most of them long-term, and I sure as hell didn't have to apply effort to remember I was in a relationship. I automatically passed on probably the best dude I will ever meet and the only chance I would ever have with him because I was a year and a half into a relationship; and with an ahole, no less.
If you have to apply effort to remember you're in a relationship, A: you probably don't care about that person and B: you're probably a dick. When you actually care about someone, let alone _love_ them, you don't have to _try_ to not screw them over.
edit: forgot a space.
@@michaelh13Uhhh yes and if you have to constantly remind yourself you're married maybe you shouldn't be. A good marriage is easy.
@@Arcanist_Gaming No you haven’t. You speak like some 17 year old who acts wise but hasn’t seen the world yet to apply any experience. Relationships are hard, and require constraint effort, because you’re applying your energy to something independent of yourself. That’ll inevitably lead to peaks and troughs, under which certain people of dubious morality will inevitably consider cheating. Just because you were too weak to end your own negative relationship doesn’t mean everyone else has the same morality as you
@@myon9431 No it isn’t, and you speak like someone who’s never had a real relationship before, they’re constant effort
I am not a fan of the Try Guys, I didn't know they existed until the scandal. But I think one of the founders of a company cheating on his wife, who is also an employee of the company, with ANOTHER employee of the company who is NOT his wife, over a long period of time, and flagrantly in public, justifies their response. That's pretty fucking low. I don't think he's an evil person or anything, but I think what he did was genuinely disgusting, and if I was in Ariel's shoes I could never forgive him in a million years, so I hope she is genuinely happier with this choice because I wish everything good for her. She hasn't done anything wrong.
Ariel is kind of weak though, bit of a doormat... If she forgave him, he'll obviously would do it again and again. Anyway, content wise... It seems like that he wanted to stick the same formula while the others actually wanted to do side projects on their own. The guy was kind of bland with no sense of creativity or personality on his own.
@@jarkkehhh213 It's incredibly difficult to make a relationship work after they cheated, and she does not only need to consider herself in this situation. She has children, and it would be difficult on them as well if their parents got a divorce. It's not right to call someone weak when we have no idea what is going on in their lives.
@@jarkkehhh213 Calling someone weak for that is incredibly fucking rude. You don't know shit about their personal lives.
@@BE-fw1lr Well she is weak lol he probably beats her and still forgives him after he brings home flowers - rinse and repeat -😅
The issue is that Ned was the boss, and Alex was an employee. It would cause a lot of potential legal issues.
Exactly I don't think he would have been fired from the company if it had been a random woman and not an employee though I do believe he would have been put on the back burner and sort of tucked away not to be in videos anymore because it did go against his entire persona online to cheat on his wife
@@Maplebear1203you really think 1) the other try guys are so weak of character to have wanted to do that and 2) their fanbase would have let them live that down? Their bread and butter are being guys that are (or come off as) wholesome guys of good moral standards.
1.) They will just let it slide and not because of weak characters 2.) Yes the viewers will just let it go. Don't be so daft. Open your eyes and look at every other content creator embroiled with controversies. There are few ways in which could cause a content creatoe popularity to die. Such as when he/she stopped making content regularly, or making a massive switch on the channel direction, or embroiled irl crimes that lead to being summoned by the police and court, or directly deplatformed by the service provider. Something like a cheating scandal, which is something that every party involved could resolve by talking and making concessions internally is definitely something you can force your viewers to move on. At worst viewers count will take some dip but hey they will eventually bounce back like nothing happened if you keep grinding
@@kekconnoisseur9809 I feel like based on this response you are not a long time viewer of the try guys or have not watched much of them, because no they absolutely would not have swept it under the rug and had they done that, their fan base would have 100% left them. They said it very directly in their response video, Ned’s actions was so directly against their morals and the image they had created, and they could not see any scenario where they could move forward with him. Additionally, something Keith and Zach talked about in the podcast was that they were very aware of how traumatic and upsetting this would be for their audience. I am fully aware of how the internet works and that content creators will often put up an image, but the try guys is a group that has created an honest and positive community, and if they allowed Ned to stay on despite his horrible actions their fan base would have left them in the dust. I truly do not see a world where they would ever attempt to sweep it under a rug, knowing both how much it would hurt both their fan base and their company.
Ned was always the weakest link. It was the sweet one, the silly one, the sassy one, annnd the one with a wife. He was the only one without an actual identity, he was always tied to an external relationship
Agree. He was the most forgettable.
Off the top of my head he’s also guy who went to Yale…the guy with the annoying laugh…they don’t really have the same charm as Keith, Zach and Eugene.
The obnoxious butt guy
@@eileensnow6153the one that sounds like Squidward 😂
💯
Surprised at the utter lack of further context from TRO about why Ned was dismissed in the fashion that he was. In every corporate structure I ever worked in, a relationship with a subordinate is grounds for immediate termination. Also Ned represented HR within 2nd Try, making any sort of recourse from either the other Try Guys or Alex if shit got messy for one reason or another difficult. Don't get me wrong: "cheating bad" -- particularly when your whole on-screen personality is built around your wife and kids, but it also had the potential to ruin 2nd Try if things went pear shaped between Ned and Alex.
i’ve never worked in corporate where relationships with subordinates were immediate grounds for termination. what line of work are you in?
@@PutinsMommyNeverHuggedHimI'm surprised to hear that because it's a very big legal liability for companies because of the power imbalance between a subordinate and a boss especially if said boss is ranked so much higher than the subordinate
@@PutinsMommyNeverHuggedHim it's usually those big corporate companies, I'm not from the US, but it's kinda the same in my country. Not termination, just a declaration and usually results in repositioning of the boss OR the subordinate. If it's an affair, it's grounds for an ethics case which usually terminates both employees.
the person with the most power and influence being their own hr department what could go wrong 💀
@@Maplebear1203 the only thing my friend had to do in his law firm is declare the dating relationship to HR and was moved to a different location. he was never terminated, still works there and they’re married now
Their kids growing up and learning about all of this is going to be brutal
Honestly, I thought the three handled it really well. Ned was the boss of the woman he was having an affair with. He basically endangered the company and opened them up to litigation. I love the fact they took his misconduct so seriously and booted him.
Lowkey, good riddance when it comes to Ned. Genuinely LOVE the content without him. And his sacking gave us some great new additions to the recurring cast, such as Jared, who I cannot get enough of.
yeah i was never a huge ned fan, i always found him annoying lmao! but i’m sure it was super hard for the other guys, i can’t imagine that!
Jared’s chaos energy scares me and I love it
I loved him in the dress video and I was so excited to see him in without a recipe. His energy is exactly the kind of chaotic joy I need in my entertainment🙌
He was my favourite try guy haha 🥲
But I agree that the new content is great :)
Without a recipe NED just brought me down because he just had angry temper tantrum’s (look at ginger bread house) where Keith’s angry food rants are for comedy.
That SNL skit has DIRECT connections behind the scenes to Ned and Alex which argues they explicitly mistold the story because the issue was that not only was he an asshole for making a paying career on “I’m obsessed with my wife” only to be a cheating scumbag but that HE AS A CEO was having a MONTHS LONG PUBLIC AFFAIR with one of their COMPANY EMPLOYEES which is such a massive HR violation it could have bankrupt the entire company
He was in _charge_ of HR, so if it wasnt consensual who would she have reported it to, him?
@@bloodyneptuneThere it is! I was listening to this and screaming “And he was the head of HR!!” It was a major problem from every angle.
I didn’t know at the time of my comment he was the head of HR 🫠 That really does make it so much grosser
Let’s remember and make it clear it wasn’t really about cheating it was about him being in a position of authority over the person he cheated with, he was her boss and also basically HR for the company. It’s never been portrayed as anything less than consensual on both their parts but the fact of the matter is he was able to fire her if she said no, as her boss he held her career and livelihood in his hands, although she too could turn around and blackmail him because of his position in relation to her as well. It was him being her boss that was the core issue which means there’s always going to be ambiguity on it actually being consensual. Him being her boss means that even if he hadn’t of been married it still would have been an issue (albeit nowhere on this scale and probably just an HR chat) due to the authority imbalance. If he’d cheated with someone not connected to the company it more than likely would have gone down slightly differently, yes it still would have been against the family man brand he’d constructed and a slap in the face to everyone from his wife to the other guys to even the fans, but it would have been less directly and intricately connected to the company. I think people get caught up in thinking it was a morality thing, but this came down mostly to legally protecting the company and the people that rely on them for their livelihood. Yes, others involved on the periphery had to deal with the fallout emotionally, mentally, physically, interpersonally, etc but this was a business, not a personal, action in response. Cheating is really just the symptom, the cause of his firing was actually the authority and power imbalance of who he cheated with.
I honestly don’t get this criticism, I’m not a fan of the try guys but it doesn’t sound like any power dynamics or abuse were at work. If she talked to any other of the try guys he would get fired like he did now. Like yeah it sucks he cheated but it wasn’t this horrible affair where he abused her
@@Thundersz this isn’t criticism, it’s fact. Any relationship with an authority imbalance leaves the door open for using that power against the other person in the relationship. No ones saying either of them exploited their respective positions during the affair but they *could of* and that’s what makes it a company liability and not just a morality one. There’s a reason many companies have a policy against dating co-workers, it’s one thing if two interns date, it’s entirely different if the boss dates the intern. In universities Teaching Assistants have to disclose if they’re dating a fellow classmate because they’re not allowed to mark their work, either to give them an advantage or to disadvantage them if the relationship doesn’t work out. There has been no evidence to show exploitation in this specific case but the issue is that it *could have* happened with them being connected professionally, and especially with one in charge of the other professionally. This is a “what if” issue. Even if he’d been single he’s still her boss what if they’d broken up at some point? Would he have demoted her in retaliation? Fired her? Made it hard for her to get a job elsewhere? Maybe absolutely nothing, maybe it would have been 100% amicable and they’d both Ben fine personally and professionally, but the fact is the power imbalance existed and that’s the issue.
@@ThunderszThe power dynamic imbalance is just the fact that he was her boss, a co-owner and the HR rep for the company. There’s an inherent power imbalance in a boss vs worker relationship, even without the cheating.
The business decision the other 3 made is because of what ‘could’ have happened. She could have used labor laws and totally sued the whole company, all 4 guys, into bankruptcy and ruined all of their reputations. She didn’t, but she could have if it hadn’t gone the exact way it did.
Anyone who followed this situation should know he didn’t get fired for cheating. He literally risked all of their reputations and livelihoods. Legally, this is the only way they could have responded to save their company.
@@Thunderszit doesn't matter if you or i don't get the criticism or think it was consensual, it's just that legality would mean if they had not reacted this was they would be in a shitstorm or legal battles and the company and employees vulnerable. also, he was both her boss and HR. If she reported it it would report,,, to him. That's both a moral and legal nightmare (and fyi I do think it was consensual I just also know that regardless she could have made her case with labor laws and ruined the company)
@@Thundersz either you've never worked at a job or you've never watched a harassment video. That doesn't fly in a well run business. Read a book.
*The Try Guys:* Are hurt emotionally that a close friend has been doing deplorable behavior, as well as financially since Ned's whole thing was "I love my wife" and little else, whose actions caused massive upheaval in the company.
*The Media:* Why are they so unbelievably mad at Ned?
the “they’re only so angry to appease their fans” narrative has always seemed so insulting and ignorant to me, as someone who’s experienced something similar with a former friend group. ned was their very close friend of many years. their reaction was a completely normal one to having to a friend of that caliber lie about something as big as an extramarital affair (and even without the personal connection, it is completely fair to think a man cheating on his wife is bad, and to be angry about it). I honestly think that, if anything, the try guys’ status as internet celebrities ultimately made their reaction *less* dramatic. if this were just drama between an unknown group of friends, there wouldn’t have been all the statements drafted and business decisions made and words carefully chosen - without the factors of both needing to keep a business afloat and assuring that the people involved would be harassed as little as possible, the situation would have been fast, messy, and completely brutal. when I watch that statement I see three people who were betrayed on an incredibly deep level forcing themselves to be civil for the sake of not prompting (possibly dangerous) mass internet harassment. I have so much respect for them for waiting and making the response that they did because, having experienced the same sort of situation in a non public context, I really don’t think I would have been able to pull it together and be tactful like that
Looks like Ned Fulmer failed the “Try Not to Cheat on Your Wife” challenge
How did you comment 7 hours ago lol
The video just came out and you commented 7 hours ago how ?
wow such a shockingly original joke
@@Kha1.420yeah wth, do we got a time traveler on our hands?
Bro 😂
the media: *milks the drama*
the try guys: hey heres what were gonna do about it
the media: OMG WHY ARE THEY SOOOO OBSESSED AND DRAMATIC W IT OMGGGG
yup. and then there were ppl complaining about how the Guys would shade Nedward every now and then in videos post!firing. some ppl genuinely accused them of milking the drama, when, like, the Guys literally experienced a massive betrayal that put them through a STORM of unwanted media attention, while being legally and professionally bound to not spill all the details (as one might want to with such insane speculation from others) - i think they're allowed to make a few salty jokes to cope.
Fr tho its like people just want to present them as wrong, reguardless of what they're actually doing.
The bottom line is that Ned had an affair with his employee. That makes it a problem for the business, the livelihoods of the people they employ. There was the threat of the employee deciding to sue the business for the unethical actions of a superior taking advantage of his employee. That's a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen, and it has to be handled correctly.
Not to mention not only did he risk his closest friends livelihood and everybody who worked at that company he also risked his entire families financial security considering his wife worked full time for the company too all for some temporary pleasure and the feeling of a new relationship 😒
plus Ned was responsible for HR in the company so if it was in fact a case of sexual harassment Alex basically had no one to turn to
the fact that Ariel receives hate for her decision to stay with her husband is wack. she surely would have been justified in making that decision, but she is just as justified in the decision to stay. she did nothing wrong. her husband did. she doesn't deserve to get an ounce of negative attention for this, and in the end, it is their decision what happens with their marriage going forward.
@theashwoodfaerie He cheated while she was PREGNANT? This man is a monster
@theashwoodfaerieshe was pregnant??? Bruhh that makes him look waaay worse
@theashwoodfaerie i really hope that's not true. staying together "for the kids" is always bad and leads to a *lot* more trauma for the kid than simply getting divorced does. growing up in a broken home is far worse than growing up with a single parent
@@zeebo30that is so far beyond false it's almost laughable. it's been studied and proven that not only do children always prefer their parents to stay married when asked, but they turn out better when raised by two parents, too. the only cases that isn't true is when the parents are actually abusive toward each other or the child/ren.
@@SerahBay kids would be happier not seeing/hearing their parents scream and argue all day
The fact that a company is taking action when an violates his power and position is commendable. Even if he thought it was consensual, he had power of her and her job and her life basically. I believe the try guys reacted appropriately to the situation removing him from the company.
@@michaelhernandez7978 no one is doing that. people are just pointing out another layer of the issue that justifies his firing. it wouldn’t have been as bad for their brand if the person he cheated with wasn’t his subordinate AND someone the try guys and ariel worked with for years it would probably not even as bad (still deplorable). The reason why it’s common in every cooperate job to disclose relationships, and not engage with romantic encounters with subordinates because consent is dubious sometimes, it’s a better safe than sorry. And if a manager isn’t ready to understand that, that’s worse than a subordinate doing it because they hold less power.
absolutely fuck the paparazzi guy following Ariel around. She's the biggest victim in this along with her children and I have no idea how people can think its okay to follow her around with a camera. While I personally wouldnt stay with someone who cheated, its her choice and I hope shes doing well.
They were the ones who called the paps…..
it was veryyyy funny at the time too bc the paparazzi filmed their car plaque and someone found a post on Nextdoor w a picture of the same car and same plaque saying that that there were two people having sex in it in front of a park where a lot of families/children were passing, and said park had appeared in a try guys video a few months back (and Alex and Ned were late in that video so,,,,,) 😭😭😭
Yeah… it was The Hollywood Fix and they’re the paparazzi that you call. They aren’t TMZ so I’m not all that certain that anyone actually was following them around.
I love how you never know for sure what the next TRO video could be about. It just needs to be about months-old contraversy. The next one could be about Colleen Ballinger or about Oceangate. Who can say?
I'd love to see the TRO team tackle Illuminaughtii when all the information is out.
Imagine the illuminaughtii video being 5+ hours 👀
Yessss I need a TRO video on iilluminaughtii
The Illuminaughtii one will probably need to be a 3-part video
The illuminaughtii video is coming out in like three years. Considering all the info that’s still coming out and is anticipated coming out in the future.
Probs gonna be a bit given the lawsuit(s) but yeah I will watch that vid so fast
I think you missed to say that Ned didnt just cheat on his wife. He had a relationship, casual or not, with a subbordinate. Which could put the try guys company in seeious legal trouple...
yeah, i was scrolling through the comments to find something like this. what happened to alex was a crime. it’s very obvious from the framing of this video that TRO, for whatever reason or another, is deeply uninterested in what happened to alex. when someone is in a romantic or sexual relationship with their boss, their boss can then trap the employee in that relationship by threatening to demote or fire them if they don’t continue the relationship or performing sexual acts for them. that’s highly illegal. we don’t know the details of alex’s side of things. while ned emphasized that it was a “consensual” workplace relationship, plenty of abusers are convinced the person they abused “wanted it.” ned was a company owner, the finance manager, and responsible for hiring and firing. he was the only person with power in that relationship. i am sorely disappointed that this was framed like a story about infidelity and slipping up in a marriage and was more interested in the interpersonal drama between the guys and not about the abuse of power that this woman endured and the horrific online backlash she faced for being a victim. she is one in the eyes of the law regardless of whether or not she consented to this relationship. it’s a frankly misogynistic framing of this story that the blatant abuse of alex was written off and ignored for the sake of centering ned, zach, keith, and eugene. TRO is usually so thorough that i cannot help but feel like this video was phoned in and as a survivor of abuse it’s driving me a little bit insane.
@@GelatinSkeletonIt's not a crime in itself to date a boss/employee, but I understand what you're saying. We don't know how she feels about what happened.
@@GelatinSkeletonit’s not illegal but it’s more than likely against company policy, but i think that’s what you meant
this is what annoyed me most about a lot of people’s responses. as if the infidelity was the worst part. like yes it’s awful he cheated but with an employee? that’s gotta be against code of conduct and is just unethical lol
@@ratboygirlI can tell you've never worked a real job before 😂
i think it's weird that people got mad at Ariel for staying. it's not up to us whether she leaves him or not, and it shouldn't reflect badly on her for staying 💀
yeah i don't get being mad at her. worried about her maybe but angry is just so wild to me. she's the victim here, any decision she decides to make about this is compeltely valid because she's the only person who really knows how this is affecting her, hence why my position is just to be worried for her and to hope her choice to stay with him doesn't result in her being hurt further
it was a bit disappointing but at the end of the day, he IS the father of her two children and the decision to break up the family for both of them would have certainly weighed very heavily on her. she probably heard plenty of opinions from her own family and in-laws.
Nah it's a shit decision. She's free to make shit decisions, but they're still shit.
Plus she was with him for more than ten years she thought about her kids and her family. It’s not that easy to just pack up and leave.
I get why Zac cut off Keith with the "business violation" line, he didn't want the decision to sound personal because the primary issue was her status as an employee. Betraying their trust was fucked up, but a superior having a sexual relationship with a subordinate is ethically and legally much worse.
i despise the narrative that this was "just about cheating". in a professional context, it's the abuse of power as an employer dating an employee that matters. if you control someone's workload, paycheck, and more in the workplace, you cannot date them without an inappropriate power imbalance being there. not to mention that ned himself represented HR, and so it would be harder for alex to hold ned accountable. although i no longer like/support ned, i am happy that his family was seemingly able to heal and move on.
You acting like the lady he cheated with has no agency. She probs knew what they were doing, she's not a child.
@@ppelguttshe definitely did
@@ppelguttYes but in the eyes of the law she didn't have any agency that relationship was a huge liability especially if things went sour between Ned and Alex she could have destroyed that entire company
@ppelgutt she most likely did, but let's say she threatened to end the affair at any point and he didn't want snt it to...he could totally threaten her job. Hell, she could easily claim she didn't want to embark on an affair but he DID threaten her job. Its why its not only immoral for someone that higher up to date/have an affair with someone in the workplace, its also incredibly stupid
@@ppelguttof course she has agency, but as her boss he had the direct means to threaten that agency
So, the trial of the try guys was really weird when it first happened because I have been a fan for a few years and I had gotten the date night cookbook for my father. I had pre-ordered it for Father's day of 2021, but it was coming out in september, so I told him that it would arrive when it did. He proceeded to announce his divorce from my stepmom in august, so I had to laugh about it when I got the email that it was going to arrive and I told him what it was and he laughed too. Only to find out in March of the next year is that the reason why they got a divorce was because he cheated on her. ( Needless to say, I took her side of things. He's a jackass.) But then, in September of that same year, the Ned situation dropped. And I had my first out of body experience as all of those pieces came together in a way they never had before.
Oh i’m so sorry
That’s wild 😅
the way it all fit so perfectly, sorry u dealt with that but the irony is truly hilarious.
I recently watched an older without a recipe with my boyfriend (the gingerbread one iirc) and and laughed cause there was a plug for the date night cookbook, which I totally forgot about 😂
I'm surprised you didn't mention that Ned was the acting HR guy at the time as well as part owner in the company. All of which may or may not have had an effect on Alex's relationship with Ned. There's no proof that there was any power weaponized, but it's hard to think it wasn't a factor.
What a nothingburger, "I shouldnt speculate on this, but heres my speculation".
@@ppelguttIt's not speculation though, he was their HR. That's the part that matters. Whether or not he used that to his advantage over Alex, that's like saying, "Yeah but it's fine that they removed all the sprinklers from the building because there wasn't actually a fire. You shouldn't speculate about if there was a fire or not." HR being able to document relationships and provide layers of separation between them at a company is a safety measure. Regardless of intentions, Ned acting as he did removed that safety measure for Alex because he was no longer an unbiased third party to her.
It's also worth noting that we don't actually know the extent of Alex's experience because if there is anything more problematic in it, it wouldn't be any of our business and the Try Guys probably wouldn't be at liberty to say anyways.
That doesn't mean for sure something else beyond the affair happened between them. But it also means it's inaccurate to ever say that we as the public know for sure the extent of "what went wrong".
It's not speculation to say, "What he did put her more at risk and that is unacceptable regardless of whether that risk came to fruit."
@@ppelguttIt's not unreasonable to think there was at least some extent to Ned abusing his power. Which meant Alex couldn't consent fully since he was her boss. And since the guys have said multiple times not to send Alex any hate, it seems like something did go wrong and maybe Alex wasnt the completely villain homewrecker than everyone made her out to be.
I do felt bad for her. I still do. There was a ton of racist comments too since she is asian and that's just not right
@@shinyandnotpanicking you mention several times that the public don't know for sure. This is why this case should not be a public matter and why is so very not me and yours case to speculate on.
Also, by saying "there we're PROBABLY some foul play and Ned PROBABLY was misusing his power" it seems like you're assuming Alex has no agency.
I understand that power dynamics is a thing and it very well could be some power imbalance, but I think there's an equally if not greater chance of Alex just dating this dude for her own selfish reasons- Until the former is proven anyways.
@@ppelgutt I feel like you either did not read or did not comprehend my comment because not once did I use the word "PROBABLY".
You're misrepresenting and misunderstanding my argument.
My comment was not speculation. Yours which includes "I think there's an equally if not greater chance of Alex just dating this dude for her own selfish reasons" is actually speculation.
I feel like this video completely missed the severity of what happened, as it wasn't simply "cheating" (hence the drama)...
Ned was a *founder* of the company and Alex's BOSS. There was a power-dynamic at play in the relationship, that has been either overlooked or ignored entirely. This was the crux of the Try Guys' response, as it's a serious issue for any company (particularly a small, private business); a boss engaging with an employee can lead to far more serious consequences than just a lawsuit. Ned's general behavior in the situation can be viewed as negligent or selfish at best, and predatory at worst.
The other aspect of the conversation (which was also never mentioned here), was the "wife guy" influencer personality and the exploitation of one's family as a part of an online identity. Family Vlogs are a more horrific example of this, but nevertheless, Ned involved his entire family in his literal business - involved them with his coworkers, too - without regard to the consequences of that. He took advantage of this aspect of his life to project a façade of morality, responsibility, and devotion; he wielded this mask wantonly, hoping it would shield him from any negative criticism...which is part of why it's so awful. Children should never be used as a shield...family is not a way to hide from your criminal actions (and yes - a superior engaging with an employee CAN have criminal implications).
Yes to all of this!
Very well put! 💯
Usually you really nail every detail in a video, so I’m disappointed that you didn’t mention at all the aspect of Ned cheating with his subordinate employee… which completely changes the entire event and makes sense why he was booted from the company. It wasn’t “just” cheating, it was cheating with his employee whom he had power over.
Word. TRO is usually on point, however all content creators at some point misses the mark at times so I'll give him grace
It's still wild to me that he was known as the "I love my wife" guy... all while he was having an affair with an employee of his. 😳
I think that this was forgotten quite often during the aftermath.. His constant “I love my wife” mantra, added another layer to the backlash.
@@baysidelassmaybe he needed to say it out loud all the time so he could believe it himself 😬
What a lot of people didn't understand was that the feeling of betrayal was on both sides: the fans and the other try guys, but not 100% for the same reason. As fans, our anger and betrayal stemmed a LOT from being lied to. Ned pretended to be the wife guy, so in love, the perfect husband, and then cheated on his wife. His wife, that was also well loved by fans. Thats why they felt betrayed. While the try guys felt the same betrayal of being lied to, and feeling for his wife, there is a whole other level added to this that makes it a big deal. Ned didnt just cheat on his wife while his public persona was that of the most loving husband, he also decided to cheat with his employee - COMPLETELY disregarding the trust that 3 of his BEST FRIENDS had put into him and completely ignoring the fact that his actions put the whole company into a very uncomfortable legal position. He didnt just cheat on his wife while lying to everybody, he also didnt care that this would not only impact the life of his wife and his child, but also every single employee in that company, along with the owners of the company who are some of his closest and oldest friends. If he had "just" cheated with some random woman no one knew, the internet wouldve come after him - sure. But he put the entireity of the company on pause with every single contributor there worrying about the future of their job and their careers AFTER they already had plenty of issues with buzzfeed in the past and didnt even know if the whole second try thing would work out. They sacrificed a lot for this company, only for one of them to completely disregard all of that effort and struggle and to choose to cheat with their employee of all people.
Not to mention by doing this he didn't only put his career on the line but his wife's as well she was a full-time employee of the company he put his entire family's financial future on the line for seemingly no reason other than an ego thing because clearly he wasn't trying to hide it
@@Maplebear1203 the wives and Matt on the you can sit with us podcast have said that Ariel would be welcomed back with open arms if she ever wanted to return so that’s not super valid. If they did fire her she could definitely sue since she did literally nothing wrong in the situation.
@@BL-sd9mn but he did jeopardise it. did he know how anyone would react to that ? Also how wouuld she feel being in the limelight after all of the dirty was unaired ?
Why no linebreak though?
@@BL-sd9mn She totally could come back, but be realistic, if you were in her shoes, even if all of your coworkers supported you and genuinely cared about you, would you want to go back to that sort of environment? an environment where every single person knows exactly what happened to you? I am sure they meant it when they said she could come back, but doing so would take an incredible emotional toll on anyone in that situation, and that is directly due to ned's actions. it's a valid thing to bring up
Personally, I really felt Matpat's response to the situation and how mainstream media treated it was really good and nuanced
What did matpat say? Curious because I actually like matpat, looking for more kudos to back him up with when people start slamming him in secret Reddit threads.
I just got back from watching matpats video, it's just on his channel, dunno how I missed it but yeah he got all the points right and get a few digs in at the media at the same time which is always good, just wild to hear him jab at try guys for being Melba toast when matpat hasn't said a swear word in his entire life... I don't even think he knows any 🤣
@@Rowrowfightthepowerfrom my memory he was talking about how media portrayed the situation poorly and with misinformation such as saying Ned cheated with a random woman instead of an employee which is much more problematic for the other guys due to multiple reasons.
@@RowrowfightthepowerHe swears a lot on his GTLive videos xD
Gross, matpat.
Strangely, I do like the Try Guys better now. I never knew what kept me from being a more constant fan of them. I had no idea it was Ned for some reason, but it makes sense now.
I could never feel mad at Ariel for staying, though. She seems like a very sweet woman. I'm sad she doesn't seem to be putting herself first, but it's her life and her choice. Disempowering someone who went through what she went through would only be more damaging. She doesn't deserve that. I hope she'll find happiness in the future, and the kids too.
Same, I actually thought Zach was the problem before, but then once Ned got dropped I was able to appreciate all three of the guys more, I think partly because Ned's arguably toxic competitiveness was no longer there. I know it was a huge blow to them both personally and financially, but I think with Ned gone things are even better than before.
I agree with a lot that was said, but I’m also absolutely baffled by the fact that the massive HR hell-scape of a situation wasn’t mentioned at all… other than “workplace violation”… like what? 💀
I couldn’t imagine the absolute horror my workplace would be if something like this happened. I have so much more empathy for the other guys now, poor Zach 💔😭
Still loved the video tho, great work again guys lol xx
14:01 Imagine running into your favorite Internet Celebrity and take a picture with them, not knowing you've just set off the first domino in the tornado of fuck that is going to destroy that celebrity's career, reputation, and marriage.
Ehhh, Ned set that domino up not the fan. He destroyed his own career, reputation and marriage.
They may not have orchestrated his downfall but they sure did knock the first domino down. Hell they had no reason to doubt Ned, they were just excited to see their favorite creator in public.
I didnt realise that dude had just been walking around with his side piece in public for months holy shit. Guess he didnt think he was famous enough to be recognized?
I'm shocked he'll go around in public like that. He ain't no Johny Dep level of celebrity, but I think the Try Guys has 8 million subscribers, and I'm sure there are additional people who watches their videos but not subscribed, I'm also assuming that the subscriber's family and friends know about them too, so that must be roughly 10~12 million people who knows about him. I guess he was a dumb guy in the end, even though he went to Yale. Book smart, but not street smart.
@holographicwing Calling her a "doormat" is really judgemental. Her income was also directly tied to the company, and she has two children and now neither her or Ned (as far as we know) has a job anymore. She could've decided due to various constraints it's better to stay with him for now for the stability of the children's lives. Maybe she'll decide in the future to split with him, but it is probably quite literally not a viable option for her at the moment.
@@holographicwingwhat an L take. You don’t know anywhere close to enough to actually judge. If all I ever knew about you was this comment and I still thought I could judge you, I’d probably say you’re an asshole. But I’d guess there’s a lot more to you than that. Anyways, Ariel doesn’t deserve a bunch of strangers online hating on her for making her own decisions in her own private life
@@holographicwing divorce is expensive
@@nicolasnamedI fully believe the try guys would have still allowed her to stay she willingly resigned after this all happened she is being kind of a doormat by staying we all know how close the group was you can't tell me that the other three try guys and their partners wouldn't have supported her and helped her out
I do think this video glances over the fact that a business owner and HR manager was sleeping with a subordinate employee.
Ned being the wife guy who was caught cheating was one issue, but because he was a business owner and HR manager in a position of power over his affair partner. It doesnt matter how consensual he says it was. If the other business owners didnt act the way they did, they could have been opened themselves up to other issues and/or lawsuits
How old are you?
@@user-bo1sl7gs9x your mom
@@user-bo1sl7gs9x Tf does that have to do with anything?
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xdoes it matter? they’re correct that’s literally the law.
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xdid you know that people can click on your profile and see what other comments you have left on this video? So I can see you vehemently and repeatedly defending “company owner and head of hr has an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate” as perfectly fine. I can see you comparing you making more money than your girlfriend to this situation. I think you either have shit to work through, need to improve your critical thinking/reading skills, and/or will have to go through some…remediation HR courses in your future.
Hey, can you re-do the video to include the fact that Ned was her BOSS? Thanks.
The Tri Guys handled this situation wonderfully; they got lawyers involved immediately when they got confirmation from Ned and went from there. I also appreciated how even though Alex was part of this, they made sure Ned was the one that got most of the heat. There was the abuse of power, he put EVERYONE’S job on the line, he was the one married with children, and he was the one that betrayed their decade plus friendship. The fans started noticing changes in their videos and that Reddit leak was gaining traction and that’s when they had to go public. They weren’t going to keep this hidden but they had to handle this LEGALLY first which was brilliant. They honestly had no idea and their demeanors in the explanation video proved that. Ned really didn’t care about his wife, children, their friendship, or the company they built. Then to put a cherry on top of this audacity cake, that freaking SNL skit mocking the entire situation. Ned, you got a lot of nerve letting your buddies at SNL downplay what you did. You’re a clown and uh, good luck explaining yourself when your children get older and they find out via Internet what happened.
The Tri Guys were so transparent about this whole thing which is refreshing; men have been brainwashed into thinking they need to be robots even though they are humans created with emotions. Tri Guys are gonna be alright ☺️ what a weird week it was during 2022. This and that fishing tournament where those fishermen were caught cheating finally lol “we’ve got weights in fish! There we go!!”
Huge fan of them. Pretty shocked when the scandal came out. Still love their content. Good riddance to ned
I was a huge fan of them, but things just aren’t the same anymore. We’re lucky to get two of them in a video together. When it’s all three it’s like a special occasion. To me, the magic was always the four of them and their chemistry together. I think there was a large void left with Ned’s departure. (NOT trying to defend Ned, just think their content has suffered).
@@melissataylor7349 really? i feel like their content has vastly improved after ned's departure. i like some of the people who are making more regular experiences like kwesi and johnny quite a lot. eugene already seemed kind of like he was focusing more on other projects so i'm not surprised about that. i think ned was always the weakest link content-wise and that's kind of what led to him branding himself as the wife guy. eugene is a natural with his sarcastic persona and both zach and keith are much more natural than ned is with comedy. my first reaction to realizing what was happening was "thank god it's ned and not one of the important guys"
@@melissataylor7349 Miles, Kwesi, and Jonny have somewhat filled that hole. Eugene backing off is kind of a separate issue. It does seem like Zach is often stuck playing boss. Still, it isn't right to guilt anyone for doing their projects: they're all important and in the greater try guys sphere and fans will love it or hate it.
the fact that you think personal life has anythign to do with the content you make, is downright insane.
shame on you.
As long as Keith is there I’ll keep watching, I love Eugene and Zach too but it’s Keith that makes me really laugh.
As a long time Try Guys fan, I remember being so shocked when I heard about Ned cheating. Not only was I shocked because he's the "my wife" guy, but because it was with an EMPLOYEE. It's insane how SNL tried to make it sound like it was basically nothing, I'm glad people actually recognized how shitty SNL was in that situation. And to be completely honest, I prefer Try Guys without Ned. Idk why, but only after the he left did I realize how annoying and rude he was sometimes. Anyway, I still love Try Guys and I'm annoyed that the older seasons of Without a Recipe (my favourite series on UA-cam) feel weird to watch now
"alongside a mantra that they were prepared to try anything and everything."
This is what we in the business call foreshadowing.
The Try Guys try adultery
I can't ever hear that phrase again without a heavy Scottish accent behind it 😂
I think what people need to remember when it comes to Ned being forced out of The Try Guys for his affair is that he had an affair with his employee. The wording of "consensual relationship" in Ned's statement was very telling - because his relationship with the employee was a huge liability to 2nd Try LLC and it opened them up to issues with any and all of their employees. The employee he had the affair with could've claimed they felt forced by Ned to have a relationship to keep their job or get promotions/bonuses/special treatment. Other employees could have claimed they'd been slighted or passed over in favour of the employee Ned waa sleeping with.
Ultimately, the other guys HAD to let Ned go to protect the brand and company as a whole. To act like this affair was just some meaningless kiss that the guys were overreacting to is disingenuous and makes people claiming that (SNL) seem incredibly stupid. The Try Guys weren't just protecting themselves either, they had over a dozen employees they had to do right by too.
Whether they're all still friends isn't really anyone's business but I honestly doubt it - they've all come out and admitted they'd likely have never been friends if it weren't for The Try Guys (except maybe Zach and Keith) and that's okay too, you aren't always friends with people you used to work with/for forever. That's life. But this situation is honestly the best thing to have probably happened for the longevity of The Try Guys and hopefully the Fulmers are happy together and in a better place away from the internet.
I think one of the main issues was that he was a CEO, she was a producer, that power dynamic is a huge HR problem and he was basically the HR. He can claim it was consensual all he wants but the minute she doesn’t they get a lawsuit. Cheating does go against what they stand for but above everything else it was misconduct in the workplace with a crazy power dynamic difference
It's not only the absolute disregard for his wife and child that made this situation horrible and disgusting, it was that he made being the family man his whole personality, like every word out of his mouth was about his wife or being married or how in love he was, he literally made being a married family man his entire identity so to then just go and crap all over it made it next level betrayal and completely exposed what an absolutely fake person he was and no one can ever really recover from that level of mistrust so they definitely needed to get fire him, good riddance
Not to mention his wife also worked full time for the company he risked his families entire financial future over temporary fun and pleasure
It was actually heartbreaking seeing how disappointed they were. I remember I was just home when my sister sent me the try guys taking a break, I was the one to snoop more and found the cheating allegations. It was just disappointing. I really didn't want to believe it.
I may not be one for parasocial relationships, these guys were just a group of guys that were entertaining and sometimes I watched every video, sometimes I wouldn't touch their content for months, but I was able to see their growth. I was able to see how much they tried to do their best outside UA-cam, Eugene going to film and series, Keith doing a Broadway debut and Zack working on creative ideas and movies.
So witnessing this complete bucket of cold water over their careers and relationships was something for sure.
I'm now enjoying their content very much with just the three of them and the other reoccurring guests. Qwesi, Jared, John, and others have given the channel some light and I'm looking forward to what they will make.
I feel like the emphasis of a BOSS having relations with an EMPLOYEE is lost on do many people
I'm a little confused how this take ignores that what Ned did could have caused a lawsuit. Ned was Alex's boss. It's a massive HR violation and they didn't have an HR at the time. It could have bankrupted the company, which is why I think they were so insistent on everyone leaving Alex alone
I've also been told (but have no proof) that Eugene and Ariel were really good friends.
Thank you for being firm about Ariel getting to do whatever she pleases and it's no one's business. I hated all the tales saying she should leave him. Like, it's not your business. It's her choice.
The thing about having to basically fire Ned is that he was her boss, inherently having a power dynamic over her, making the whole situation legally risky without acting on it as soon as they were made aware of it
Oh my god, I can’t believe we’re already at the point where we can make video essays about this. It still feels like it happened just the other day
Ikr?!
I thought it happened this year 😵💫
For real, it genuinely feels like this happened a few months ago. For me it's equally weird because my life was in a really different space when this all went down lol, like I distinctly remember coming home from my shift, sitting down to eat dinner and find a video to watch, and news of this being basically the only thing all over my feed. Crazy how it's already been over a year.
This whole thing blows my mind.... Just the fact that he didn't consider or didn't care that WHEN he got caught his entire career/marriage/friendships would be ruined.
And he just.... did it anyway. Insane.
I'm wondering if he thought that only his marriage would be in jeopardy. Maybe Ned was thinking that if he got caught everything would be solved privately... Maybe he wasn't expecting the internet to find out. He could've sorted things out with Ariel and hope that she'd stay, and if the internet didn't know he was relying on his friends not firing him.
That being said, if he wasn't actually that naïve and he knew the enormous risk he was taking... he's an idiot. Ruining your marriage, career, and closest friendships because you couldn't keep it in your pants is quite an achievement
@@lauraanderson8785 More than that, I think he knew that Ariel wouldn't leave him. This is no diss to Ariel, I really feel for her. However, Ned knows her more than anyone, and he knew that she would stay. Perhaps he wasn't expecting this media outrage, but he knew she would still be on his side. I feel very sad for her. I hope Ned treats her better now, and if he doesn't, well, I hope Ariel is able to figure out her worth. For her, and for her children.
the thing i found ridiculous about this situation was the media and how they blew it out of proportion and then, when the try guys took the bait and reacted, the media acted like it was the guys over-reacting. They can't have their cake and eat it too. Had they not have said anything they'd have been accused of feeding into the culture of men never calling their male friends out on questionable behaviour.
I think everyone let Alex slide. She messed up her own engagement and her bf was just tossed to the side. Everyone says she could have been worried about her job if she spoke up. But that mean either the company and the guys made such a bad work environment that the employees felt like they couldn’t go to someone or she was 100% consenting adult wanting to cheat. 🤷🏼♀️ it’s either one or the other. So either the guys are bad bosses or she’s just as crappy as Ned and deserves the same treatment.
@user-xr7ci8tf3e I mean, that's implying he was the one to peruse her and not vice versa. Obviously that wouldn't make it any better for Ned, he's a married man and would need to say no- but you're making some assumptions.
Think how comfortable he felt with the whole thing. Alex knew his family. She knew his co owners.
Yet, he felt incredibly comfortable pursuing her/accepting her advances. Ned was fully convinced his friends would have backed him up, or at least his behavior shows that. So why do you think she would have felt safe? Regardless of them as bosses, it is still complicated.
While yes, she is not entirely innocent, woman in this situations tend to get it incredibly worse. Hell, look, Ned is living life with his millions, and Ariel didn't even leave. Alex left the company with no hope of being able to pursue appearing on camera ever again, with no cushy backing and her fiancee left.
I think she got enough.
After watching the entire video it feels like a massive waste of time. You appear to be trying to protect both sides, which to me always feels odd when only one party is at fault. I hope Ariel finds happiness, with or without Ned. But I would be surprised if they kept in contact with Ned. Very surprised in fact. This is not, as Zach is talking about in your final bit, a one off thing. Or a small fling on the side. Or a situation where the party came back remorseful. It is a long term relationship, where both parties are either married or betrothed to others, and where Ned is actively risking everything by doing this with someone who's his employee, and where he got caught after several months. Should she want to, she could ruin them by suing the company. If I had a friend who risked ruining everything I've spent a decade building, and who betrayed my trust by letting me find out via social media several months after it started, I'd never want to see them again. Old memories would be tainted, and I'd have to move on. If I was also friends with his wife, that would just make me despise the guy.
I'm glad the trio moved on, as much as they could.
I 100% agree tbh.
For beng a bloated 1+ hour video TRO misses all the most important points, like the entire legal side of the shit situation Ned put the whole company in, and I really despise the final part in which he was sort of fence sitting on cheating. Anyone is free to make shit choices, like staying with a cheating clown like Ned, but they're still shit choices, and taking the disrespect like that is not gonna bring anyone happiness, especially the children.
@@DeadKraken The children will only feel the effect if there's resentment in the relationship. I hope there isn't, but who knows. Generally, children have a better childhood with both parents there, I'm guessing that's her rationale.
@@AdamPersson We are all human, how are you not gonna feel resentment towards the dude you married and dedicated your life to(literally, she renounced to her career lol), cheating on you for months while you were pregnant and caring for 2 other kids, and after that the same dude has also ruined her podcast job, her friendships and fucked up their income.
That's simply not possible. He's also gonna do it again, since he's seen she's ok with being publicly humiliated like that.
Children have better childoods with good parents, single, 2 or 3+, the important is that they're good. Having 2 people screech at each other 24\7 or silently hating each other and be unhappy all the time, is not good.
That's why it's a very shit decision.
I say this as the daughter of a horrid couple that I intensely wished would divorce and let me live in peace, but unfortunately never did.
THANK YOU FOR THIS COMMENT. An hour in and I’m very confused why he’s saying “wouldn’t be surprised if they stayed friends” and stuff like that almost defending Ned.
What he did was terrible he cheated on his wife with an employee, damaged the family’s career, damaged the brand, and so much more. Obviously he doesn’t deserve millions of people attacking him, but he deserves criticism and TRO keeps almost appearing to defend Ned, I’m very confused and almost Ed grossed out
How is he protecting both sides? He says what Ned did was wrong, but he's right that there are many people widely forgiven that have done far worse. If he can move past this as a non-public figure good for him and if his friends forgive him, that's their choice.
You don't get to judge the victims in this scenario for how they choose to handle it, it isn't your fucking business.
It's really sad the way this was portrayed on SNL.
Ned had a relationship with his own employee, he was the boss. That unhealthy and unethical power dynamic is often not consensual, which i suspect is why he was defensive.
I think a lot of people dismiss cheating. If you've ever been cheated on you know how heart retching it is. It can be emotionally devastating. Sure, everybody reacts differently to it but this guy was MARRIED, he had CHILDREN and he cheated with and EMPLOYEE. Fuck that noise to all hell.
Few things: Ned and his girlfriend did actually commit a crime. They were engaging in adult activities outside in a car parked next to the sidewalk with clear windows during the day when kids were walking about.
The SNL skit was probably the producer’s friend trying to save her job by downplaying what she did. It didn’t work.
If I had to speculate, I would guess, given the evidence, they used company money to further their affair and/or manipulated other staff into not reporting their behaviour. That’s probably part of the legal stuff.
Thirdly, the thinkpieces were upper middle class to rich people being absolutely horrified your friends could hold you accountable and drop you for cheating. Some people value ethics. Some people don’t. The reason cheaters aren’t friends is because they don’t want to constantly worry their partner is cheating on them, because they are (often! Not always!) manipulative and terrible people.
I don’t see a months-long affair as a mistake, especially as brazen as it was at the end.
If your public persona hinges on ethics, and then you reveal you think ethics are a joke… that’s being fired for cause. You are no longer meeting your job requirements.
Lastly, I think it’s absolutely fair for people to feel betrayed and drop you for lying to them and deliberately deceiving them(???) and the backlash to their response is very, very blatant tone policing.
Cheating is horrible but the blatant way they did it so publicly is what grosses me out the most. In the car, out at clubs, out at restaurants for all to see... they thought they were untouchable and held complete disregard for their families, careers, friends, and fans.
also something i think i remember from the podcast video is zack saying to keep in mind that everyone fucks up, and that the average person has the luxury to fuck up in pirvate, but public image people have peoples faces and cameras on them when THEY fuck up, and to keep that in mind going forward, which is incredibly mature and and compassionate especially that early on in the drama
man, I remember finding about this. Along with the entire internet I felt so bad Ariel and just plain disappointed in Ned. The other guys did a good job with that video, they covered all their bases. Oof. Watching their Cooking Without a Recipe where they had to edit Ned out, it was both funny and annoying, knowing how much work the editors had.
And whole videos that will never see the light of day, as well as that big project on a network, I think, they were working on
Their food network show was coming out during the incident, and it tanked the show.
One thing I kind of dislike about some peoples take on the situation is them saying “I never liked Ned anyways, so good riddance”.
Before the Try Guys company and channel was established, Ned definitely was the least liked and seen as a perfectly bad mix of boring and abrasive. However as the Try Guys released more personal content, with Ned focused videos that showed parts of him like why he valued (or supposedly valued, in retrospect) his wife so much as a person, as well as him battling an injury that very well could’ve led him to having an opioid addiction, and his personal fitness journey, fans all got to know him better and I’d say up until the scandal, he was on the same level as the other guys as far as likability.
With all that in mind, you can really see why the scandal was so earth-shattering and disappointing for fans of the Try Guys and especially Ned.
It wasn’t just seeing the worst member of a group go, it was seeing a creator that we had all gotten to know and relate to, basically destroy his entire positive image and character.
Yep, and don’t forget that not only did they make their very first series on their new channel about the buildup to Ned and Ariel’s first child being born, but their first Try Guys office was also actually situated in Ned and Ariel’s old house!
I don’t think it can be emphasized enough how integral Ned was to their emergence from Buzzfeed as a distinctive and successful brand. But I also want to emphasize how many people looked up to Ned as a role model for being a good husband and father (not to mention an example of a straight white male who knew how to check his privilege)….remember when he simulated childbirth for 14 hours to simulate Ariel’s childbirth experience?
Don’t get me wrong, he definitely was the most aggressive one and arguably the most polarizing from the start. But he was also smart and energetic and seemed like the most complex of personalities at times, in a way that was often quite entertaining and endearing. So I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of the Try Guys story to act as if no one was a fan of him. And indeed, at least for me, even as I am proud of how the Tri Guys weathered this storm, I also find it important to remember why the scandal was so shocking and even heartbreaking in the first place.
Yes! I see these people as the same that always say that they saw plot twists coming. No you didn't, and it's okay. Do I see now that Ned was sometimes throwing tantrums and disrespected others? Yes. Did I see it back then? No. Does the fact that I really bought into his "wife and family guy" persona make his cheating even more like an almost personal betrayal? Definitely.
Ned was definitely had the worst personality overall. I’m sure he was relatable for a certain demographic of the viewership tho. He’s very intelligent and I think his perspective was fine. The channel has definitely pivoted since his firing and in the best of ways.
@@TH2714Or maybe they saw it coming & you didn't. There's no perfect liar. Any time a scumbag pretends to be good person, some people will see through it.
i don’t think it’s that, and when it comes to ned and ariel, people began to prefer her over him pretty quickly, especially after leaving buzzfeed.
I've seen so many people go "Oh, they had to have known, it was so obvious!" Lemme tell you, I have been through a betrayal very similar to this, involving someone who literally lived in my house, and I had no idea until everything blew up. Most people in my community had no idea and were also blindsided. Manipulators are really good at persuading people to assume the best. All of their emotional reactions were exactly what my friends and I went through. It rings so real to me. I appreciated their vulnerability and openness about the betrayal; my community was not so open, and the piece of crap is now in power in another place where he can betray even more people.
Ned and Ryan Haywood have really proven that you can't trust the "wife guy"
Me: _looks away for one second_
TRO: _uploads a new documentary_
I think you really understated the part about how Ned had a affair with a subordinate!!! Thats why he was so defensive about it being "Consensual" because it cant really be consenting if one person is in a position of power over the other - i also think the SNL skit really downplayed this portion too
Not every relationship with a power dynamic is inherently wrong. For God's sake there are perfectly fine relationships occurring between managers and employees in offices across the world. It's insanely common. If you have no evidence of the power dynamic being used to actually manipulate the person just stop trying to overblown shit and get some real world perspective.
@@user-bo1sl7gs9x people beating their kids is also really common but that doesn't make it okay ahjfsdjhfh a healthy relationship needs to be on the basis that both people are equals, which ned and alex were not within the kind of relationship they had
@@gummycats I make more money than my girlfriend. And we live in my apartment. Im therefore totally responsible for her living situation. This is a total power imbalance. But guess what it's totally fine because I'm not actually using this power to exploit or coerce anyone. There are no perfectly equal relationships.
A relationship between a manager and an employee has the POTENTIAL to be extremely coercive. But it's perfectly common for both parties to be totally responsible in engaging with a relationship with a power dynamic.
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xthe employer thing is more serious than just money - it's not just the paycheck, it's your health insurance, your relationships with *all* of your coworkers, your references if you leave the company that can affect getting a job after as well as opening that employer to give preferential treatment or a quid pro quo kinda deal
it's just a *lot* of authority and theres a reason most companies have strict policies about it
@@user-bo1sl7gs9xtotally agree with you. People making a big deal about some 'power dynamic' are really reaching to make an issue out of nothing. Workplace relationships are a totally normal part of life. I feel bad for his wife, she's the one that was cheated on.
eugene was so good in nimona waaaaaa im just glad they’re still doing their own things and not letting ned ruin everything
Nice video overall but i agree with the sentiment of many others who commented, saying that it would have been good to explicitly note, and maybe add a section to the video that Ned was a boss/owner and Alex was a subordinate and how that was inappropriate/could have had legal ramifications.
its her fault
I think people need to remember that he wasn’t fired for cheating on his wife, he was fired for having an inappropriate sexual/romantic relationship with a subordinate.
Maybe in a while TRO can tackle the whole SMOSH saga. Just for that feel good end to a story for once. It is a very interesting story with a lot of twists and turns too.
Also I’m unsure if it’ll ever come but the downfall of John Swan would really be appreciated as well. Idk if TRO would want to even cover that topic. He was my third favorite “documentary” creator behind both TRO and Jaubrey.
I remember as the news broke I went to my friend, showed her some tweets, and said "Looks like Ned cheated." She straight up answered "No, he couldn't have, he would never." I was shocked lmao. I think at that point the photos hadn't been released but suspicions were really high, like literally the next day we had proof. I'll never forget it because that friend is super smart and generally perceptive, but that (parasocial) bond and belief in Ned being a real "family man" really got her to believe he would never hurt his wife like that. Talk about a betrayal of trust.
Im only 13 minutes in and most of the top comments say you dont mention why he was actually fired. For inappropriate work relationships, not cheating.
The word "consensual" in Ned's statement is simply a matter of legality. It needs to be in there to confirm that he was not using his authority as Alex's boss to coerce here into something.
I genuinely cut ties with snl after their handling of that sketch. It just hurt. How completely off base they were, how they were punching down, using their gay asian actor to punch down another gay asian actor….and it wasn’t even funny?! It was juvenile and tone def to the hundreds of sexual misconduct allegations piling up at their doors since the 70s! It was THE MOST boomer meets incel vibes 🤮 and that was the final nail in the coffin. Way overdo honestly. I support the try fam over that crew 💯
“Cut ties”? You aren’t important enough to warrant any weight in this
Huge shout out to your constant diversity of editors. 🎉
And that way you can pay them lessb money. Very smart move.
So, their explanation video was interesting - I could tell that it felt acted, because it of course had to be, they had to have decided beforehand on what to say and how to say it in order to do damage control, so that is very fine. But then I also had the thought "Hey, a man in a high leading position got fired for having an affair, for cheating in his marriage, it is actually quite nice to see this being treated so seriously." .... and then the SNL skit happened, and it was like, ahh back in the cynical world
Just now realizing I was basically married to a Ned. Constant fawning, bragging, cheesy posts, etc. Meanwhile messing with someone else's wife. 😂 I was only spared it being a huge, public event with years of footage to haunt you forever. Best day of my life was getting tf outta there!
One of the things that annoyed me about the SNL skit was the lack of acknowledgment of the destructive nature of Ned’s affair. It wasn’t just him being the unfaithful “Married Guy” it was a boss having an affair with an employee. That was a business destroying affair. That is the type of affair where, if things have been different, the company could have been at risk due to this inappropriate action. Ariel was betrayed by Ned in the most intimate way, but Ned put the other Try Guys and EVERY employee of their company at risk. I was repulsed that Ned cheated after being the “Wife Guy” but my thoughts were Ariel is the one who has to forgive or not in their marriage, whereas Zack, Keith, and Eugene had to decide what to do as friends and business partners. They could not remain business partners, but I would not blame them for their friendships because many of them are friends with Ariel and they can do what they want.