The Try Guys made headlines earlier this year when they made the announcement that they left BuzzFeed. The comedy group made the decision to leave and create their own independent production company, 2nd Try LLC. While the group members have left their full-time positions at the company, 2nd Try LLC does not cut ties with BuzzFeed all together. BuzzFeed will continue to represent the independent company for advertising and branded content sales, continuing the relationship with the long-time content creators.
The Try Guys came to life back in 2014 when then BuzzFeed employees Ned Fulmer, Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld and Eugene Lee Yang joined forces. Their first video was “Guys Try On Ladies’ Underwear for the First Time” which kickstarted their successful careers. To this date, they have produced a wide variety of content amassing over one billion views on their videos. While the comedy group has provided fans with many entertaining videos, The Try Guys have recently released their most important videos yet.
In a four part video series, The Try Guys took on four different types of impaired driving in order to raise awareness of the dangers at hand. They took on driving while drunk, high, sleep deprived and distracted. In order to execute these videos, a driving course was set up in a controlled environment at Irwindale Speedway. First, they drove the course fully sober to calculate the time it takes and how many cones they hit, which would act as the control in the experiment. The same variables were measured as they drove under the influence in different situations.
Joining the video series to add some perspective were Bill Bustos, a former traffic policeman, and Dr. Damon Raskin. These two experts provided valuable information throughout the series surrounding the effects of impaired driving. The first impairment that was tested was drunk driving. The Try Guys had previously created a video in which they tested how many drinks it would take them to reach the legal limit. This is where the concept of drunk driving becomes alarming as alcohol has extremely different effects depending on who is consuming it. For example, Eugene has such a high alcohol tolerance that even when he is considered to be legally intoxicated he believes he is not. This first video in the series shed light on a topic that is widely known as being dangerous and brought a new perspective seeing the effects in action.
While doctors and other experts know the physical and psychological effects that alcohol have on a person, they do not have that benefit with marijuana. As a newly legalized drug in the state of California, its effects on drivers are still relatively unknown. Marijuana has been found to be the second most frequently detected drug involved in crashes, following only alcohol. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana users are 25 percent more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers who did not use marijuana.
Perhaps the most alarming moments of the series were the final two videos which involved sleep deprivation and texting while driving. These two types of impaired driving most likely occur on a daily basis and members of The Try Guys even admitted to doing so regularly. While sleep deprived driving is not necessarily illegal, it is a similar experience to driving under the influence of alcohol. In regards to texting, the video speaks for itself as it displays the true dangers at hand with distracted driving. According to the National Safety Council, 26 percent of all car crashes were related to cell phones in 2014. This is a danger that has become prevalent in the age of smartphones and involving it in this series provided the awareness that needs to be spread.
The Try Guys have built an impressive following throughout the years working with BuzzFeed and have continued to develop their brand independently. It is notable to see these large media stars using their platform to raise awareness for a topic that is so dangerous yet so prevalent. This is definitely a video series to watch as it provides a great perspective on the topic and shows the dangers first hand hopefully deterring viewers from these behaviors.