What's your favourite thing about each of the Try Guys? :)
hoo boy, this is gonna get long.
my favorite thing about Ned is his unfragile masculinity; that he is easily is the most traditionally masculine of the guys, but is so comfortable in his own skin that he can dress up in women’s underwear and wear boob weights and wrestle naked with other men and and constantly tell everyone how much he loves and adores his wife and how she is the light of his life that he looks forward to spending time with whenever they are apart, and he can do it all without a hint of worry at being perceived as ‘gay’ or ‘womanly’ or ‘weak,’ because he knows that none of those things have any impact on his identity as a man. his security in his masculinity allows him to step outside of his comfort zone to test himself and to try and expand his mind so as to better understand the world and the people around him. if all straight men were as secure as Ned Fulmer… well, we might not solve all the world’s problems, but we’d solve a lot.
my favorite thing about Keith is just his vibes. there’s this great face he makes in the ending card of their new videos that is just so emblematic of who he is and what he brings to the group; just a big, bright burst of happiness and joy and humor. some of my favorite little moments are when Keith cracks up at something he is in the middle of saying. normally, it’s a little annoying when people laugh at themselves, but it works with Keith because you can tell he’s trying not to laugh. like he knows the joke would be funnier to the audience if he didn’t laugh, but he can’t help himself because he thinks it’s just that funny. and it is. so instead of loving and laughing at the joke, you just wind up loving and laughing with Keith, because his laugh is infectious. he’s just a great presence, and it’s no wonder to me why all the other guys kind of like him the best; he’s just that guy.
my favorite thing about Zach is his duality; this almost jekyll-and-hyde quality where half the time he is an awkward jewish boy with a fragile old man body who is well aware of and honest about his shortcomings, but the other half, he is a balls-out gangster fronting a unique and amazing mixture of swagger and braggadocio, or Swaggadocio™, as if he is the biggest baller in the room and possibly the world. he reminds me of a tiny dog that barks really loudly and goes super aggro on everything despite being able to be swallowed by most things in one bite. most of the time he is very sweet and self-deprecating, but when it comes time to compete, he’s got this persona he can don like a set of armor, using bluster to pump himself up and mask his insecurities and inadequacies. and the hilarious thing is, he kind of sells it. he commits to this persona, and the result is this amazing juxtaposition of this very articulate and well-spoken jewish white boy from New York suddenly talking and walking like a lifelong gangster who knows he is the baddest man in this or any other room. this not only lets Zach be hilarious and over-the-top at game time, but it also has the nice side effect of making the audience okay with him losing (which, let’s be real, he does quite often). why? because audiences generally enjoy seeing unearned hubris being punished. and you can tell he knows this, because he tends to stick to this persona when he loses, but on the rare occasion where he wins, he usually drops it in favor of just being really happy. and i think it’s very nice of Zach to help us be okay with him getting his ass kicked.
my favorite thing about Eugene is… good lord, i barely know where to begin. i love how layered he is, i love how every time i think i have him figured out, he peels back the curtain to reveal something new and amazing. he’s such a complex and interesting person and it’s been amazing to watch him evolve and reveal more of himself over time. i think that might be my favorite thing about eugene; his gradual unfurling. you can tell at the beginning that he was very guarded in a lot of ways. which, to be honest; i feel him. as an LGBT+ growing up in the Deep South, you learn to build walls. you build them high and you build them thick, and you don’t let just anyone inside because letting the wrong person in could mean not just humiliation or ostracization; it could mean the end of your life. and the unfortunate thing about well-constructed walls is that they are not easy to take down. but Eugene’s walls are, however slowly, coming down, and it’s wonderful to watch. over the course of the try guys videos, you see him start to open up more and more, being more openly emotional (and happier in general), more willing to admit attachment and friendship, more comfortable just kind of being Eugene, and the more we see of Eugene, the more i love him.
so yeah, that’s my favorite thing about each of them individually.
but wait! there’s more!
see, i don’t just love them individually. i love the Try Guys as a whole, and what they represent. their story is kind of amazing; they were co-workers at Buzzfeed who were thrown together into a group purely by virtue of being the four people most willing to try weird and potentially embarrassing things. that willingness bonded them together, leading to more videos, taking them from a funny group of weirdos doing weird stuff to one of Buzzfeeds most recognizable brands, and in the process taking them from co-workers to friends to best friends. their videos got hundreds of millions of views, they partnered with bigger shows and got name brand sponsors, they appeared in magazines and on the Today show, they got their own show on YouTube Red, and their videos went from things like ‘trying on ladies underwear’ to ‘trying dog sledding on high-altitude glaciers in Alaska.’
and then Eugene left Buzzfeed.
for those who don’t already know; Eugene left Buzzfeed in February, two months before the other guys. i don’t know why he left, but whatever the reason, it was important enough to him that he chose to leave without really having much of a safety net. so for two months, the whole Try Guys thing was kind of in limbo. nobody really knew what was going to happen, if they were going to replace Eugene or if the whole thing was just going to stop.
then, in April, the other guys followed Eugene out the door, and the four of them started their own company.
that’s so huge. think about it; they had the choice between a billion dollar media company and their friend, and they chose their friend. you know Buzzfeed wanted to keep them, and was probably dangling all sorts of goodies in front of them to try and get them to stay. but it didn’t work. they decided that there was no Try Guys without Eugene, that his presence in their lives and as part of their group was more important than their financial security. i’m sure they all had their own reasons for leaving, but when you really boil it down; these are four guys from different parts of the country, with different personalities and vastly different backgrounds, who came to love and appreciate and respect each other so much that they decided to bet their careers, their futures, and their livelihoods on each other and what they’ve built together. think about that. think about it for Ned in particular, a brand new father, who believes in his friends so much that he is trusting them with his infant son’s future.
the whole thing just gives me… feelings. what kind of feelings? well, over the course of writing this post, i actually went and joined their Patreon. i created an account just so i could support these guys because that’s how much i want them to succeed. what started as a group of silly guys doing embarrassing things has blossomed into a truly moving testament to friendship and the value of trying new experiences. i love the message they send with their videos, because my favorite thing about the Try Guys as a whole is that they’re almost never sorry they tried something. no matter how silly or strange, no matter how bad they wind up being at it or how others might look at them because of it, they are always willing to try new things and they always take something of value away from the experience. their videos tell people “try stuff! it’s okay! it’s fun! it doesn’t matter if you’re bad, it doesn’t matter if you look silly, trying new stuff is fun, and it can make you a better person!”
in conclusion, i love four (4) boys and i just want the best for them.
