“Saturday Night Live” offered its take on the Try Guys scandal that made headlines in late September.
“SNL” cast members Bowen Yang, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes portrayed Try Guys members Eugene Lee Yang, Zach Kornfeld and Keith Habersberger, respectively, in a sketch that parodied the group’s video that addressed their departure from working with founding member Ned Fulmer. (“SNL” is part of TODAY’s parent company, NBCUniversal.)
The Try Guys, a comedy group with more than 8 million YouTube followers, announced Sept. 27 they were parting ways with Fulmer after he confirmed rumors that he had engaged in an extramarital workplace affair.
On Oct. 3, the remaining three group members opened up about their decision to cut ties with Fulmer in an emotional video titled, “what happened,” which has racked up more than 9.8 million YouTube views.
In the “SNL” parody of that video, first-time “SNL” host Brendan Gleeson plays a CNN correspondent interrupting a White House segment with breaking news about the Try Guys scandal — much to the exasperation of his CNN anchor colleague, played by Ego Nwodim. Yang, Day and Dismukes as The Try Guys looked serious as they joined the segment.
The parody drew several critical reactions on Twitter, with some commenters asking why “SNL” chose to poke fun at the three remaining Try Guys’ emotional reactions to the cheating scandal.
“What I learned from this is, it’s more acceptable for a man to cheat on his wife than it is for men to have feelings,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“the one time men hold men accountable, and they’re mocked. that snl skit was tasteless,” another person tweeted.
“Oof, rude awakening to SNL that the entire internet is on the Try Guy’s side,” another commenter wrote. “There were so many other ways they could have parodied this, but they went for making the victims the punchline while downplaying workplace harassment. That’s pretty tasteless comedy."
TODAY has reached out to “SNL” for comment.