Patreon Teaser: The Cultural Impact of Buzzfeed

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Full Episode Description: In this patreon exclusive, Torry (she/her) discusses Buzzfeed’s alleged comeback as Zach Kornfeld and Keith Habersberger reveal more about their experiences working there. She then dives into its start, the workplace culture, and its current iteration. Then she discusses its scandals and what some of the Buzzfeed Video personalities are up to in 2025.

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Photo by Mariah Burchell.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So why I decided to cover this topic this week was that I was a
huge BuzzFeed girly. I wouldn't say BuzzFeed the
website per SE. I like fucking hate listicles
and stuff like that. I did like the quizzes.
Like I'm obviously a big reader.I covered A Court of Thorns and

(00:21):
Roses on my other podcast Ready to Be Romanced.
And like in Acatar there is seven, I think courts or like
kind of worlds. And it's just so fun to take a
quiz. Like I took one like last year
that was like which ACOTAR courtlike do you belong to and stuff

(00:45):
like that. Like, I think that stuff is
funny and fun and it's kind of, it's kind of that mindless stuff
that you need to do in life. Like when you look back at it,
you're kind of like, oh, that was such a waste of time.
But it's like you kind of need some of those like mindless,
recouping, relaxing moments in your day just to like, get by, I

(01:06):
feel like. So the website, yeah, Medium
fan, but the fuzzy video, which is essentially a YouTube
channel, was my jam. I loved it.
I, you know, sunk hours into that, that Channel.
Like I watched most of their videos.

(01:29):
Like I loved when they would just get a random group of
content creators to try snacks from India or Canadian slang.
Like, I don't know, it was it's very millennial and it it's very
at sometimes mindless, but it's just kind of like fun, upbeat,
positive content, which to be honest, now that I basically

(01:50):
only doom scroll, I'm kind of yearning for that just
millennial optimism and that just kind of like cheesy, really
light fare type of content. And that's basically what
triggered this podcast episode that I want to talk about.

(02:12):
And then what triggered my podcast episode, but basically
the Try Guys who, if you don't know, I'm sure most of you do
know, but the Try Guys were a group of video producers at
BuzzFeed Video and they started making videos as kind of a group
called the Try Guys where they would try things and it, which

(02:34):
is very interesting, actually. Talk about cultural fucking
impact. Giggly Squad, Paige Desorbo and
Hannah Berner when they did their 66 date, 66 city tour,
whatever the fuck podcast tour with Giggly Squad, they filmed
and just released on YouTube a series about them trying things.

(02:58):
And so they, especially the Try guys, definitely have had really
lasting impact on culture. But basically, yes, they were a
group of guys that were trying something.
They got big. I would say definitely the
biggest, probably the biggest impact on Internet, I would say
Quinta Bron, Quinta Brunson is, I would say the most famous

(03:21):
classically at this point. But regardless, they have a
podcast called Tripod and on episode 3 O 9, which was just
recently released, they talked about their experience at
BuzzFeed. And I'm actually surprised at
how little they've capitalized off of talking about BuzzFeed.
And I know that they sprinkle itinto their episodes.
I don't regularly watch or listen to their content anymore,

(03:45):
but I was a huge try guys girly for a few years.
When the Ned Fulmer scandal happened in 2022, I was like
shipped to my core. But we'll talk about that later
on. And when the Try guys ended up
leaving BuzzFeed and taking their IP and their like brand
and stuff like that with them, they definitely did a video
talking about why they started their own video production

(04:07):
company and left BuzzFeed. But, and they've definitely
talked shit and taken jabs at itover the years, but I'm actually
surprised at how little they've capitalized on this because it
is such a money grab for ex BuzzFeed employees to make

(04:28):
videos about their time at BuzzFeed.
Even so much that there is a trend on YouTube called Why I
left BuzzFeed videos, which we'll talk about later on as
well. But anyways, I'm gonna share a
little bit from that podcast that I found really interesting
and then we'll get into the actual episode.
So basically it is now just a group of two, which is Keith and

(04:52):
Zach. Eugene has kind of moved on to
other projects that are more creatively fulfilling, even
though he still is a part owner of the company.
And obviously, Ned was fired in his 2022 cheating scandal.
So it is just an episode with Keith and Zach.
So it's their perspective. But basically they talked about
how BuzzFeed is becoming popularagain, which I'd be very

(05:14):
interested to hear from you guysif you think that's the case,
because for me, that's not the case at all.
Like I don't remember the last time I watched anything produced
by BuzzFeed. But they said that because of,
you know, nostalgia core and nostalgia just like as one of

(05:35):
the driving factors for people to check out content, they're
talking about how millennials are now.
We're kind of like 1010 years past the boom of BuzzFeed and
what happens on like the 10 yeartrend cycle.
You get nostalgic for things 10 years ago and you kind of go
back to it. So I guess in that sense, like I

(05:55):
could see a little bit of a boom.
And like I just said, I feel like I'm doing scrolling all the
time that honestly, it's like maybe I do kind of want that
like really bad cheesy content in my life.
They also talked about how basically BuzzFeed, like one of
their cornerstone videos or celebrities reacting to puppies

(06:16):
or kittens. I'm sure everyone has seen the
videos of it's basically a celebrity sitting in like on a
production stage and there's 10 puppies just like walking around
them and falling asleep on them and all of that stuff.
And that actually was a idea that Zach created the first

(06:38):
video of like came up with the pitch, filmed it, etcetera,
etcetera. And it was drunk girls react to
puppies. And so it was fun to see how
that idea, you know, came to be.Thank you so much for listening.
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(07:03):
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(07:26):
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(07:49):
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Bye.