- For a little over three hours,
my penis was on YouTube.
Completely uncensored.
This is my story.
(somber music)
- You gonna put that much on camera,
what do you expect?
- Oh my god, what did we just do?
- You can't just give a penis to the internet
and expect it to disappear.
- Dick everywhere.
- [Keith] That's not how it works.
That doesn't even make sense.
- [Ned] Have you been on the internet?
- [Narrator] In May 0f 2016,
before the Try Guys created their own channel,
Buzzfeed published a video to YouTube.com
featuring then producer Zach Kornfeld peeing on camera.
Due to a censoring issue Mr...
(wheezing)
Sorry.
Due to a censoring issue,
Mr. Kornfeld's penis was left visible.
The video was up for three hours before anyone took action.
This is that story.
- Hi, my name is Zach Kornfeld.
I am best known as one of the members of the Try Guys.
And yeah, yeah I take my pants off on camera a lot.
I wouldn't say that it's something that I enjoy per se,
it's just weirdly become part of my job.
- No, Zach is obsessed with taking his pants off.
No you know what, he's obsessed with peeing on camera.
Any chance that guy gets, he pees.
- Jonathan, you've heard Zach pee on camera right?
- Oh yeah.
- He peed off the boat
in the middle of the ocean in Florida.
- Life and death situation. I was sick vomiting,
and his penis was out.
- Zach was on a National Park glacier in Alaska
and the first thing he thought was,
you know what'd be great?
If I peed on this.
- [Zach] I can't get my dick out.
(dramatic music)
- [Keith] Surviving out in the ocean, pees.
Handcuffs challenge, pees.
Out in the woods, he pees and poos.
- He put his balls in my face.
Away from my face!
During Twister.
- And then guess who has to edit all that footage?
Us.
Well, I mean no now we have editors.
- Yeah, I'd say I've seen Zach's balls a lot.
- Same here.
- Yeah.
- He got YB?
He has to edit that?
(typewriter clicking)
- (sighs) We need HR.
- I don't think I'm obsessed, no.
I just, people like it, you know?
This channel this company, this enterprise,
I would argue is built on taking pants off.
- Zach takes his pants off at every opportunity.
The other guys will have their pants on
and Zach will be pants off in the office.
- He says his bones don't work,
but he's got one bone that works a little too well.
- When Zach was born, he immediately peed.
I'm not kidding, he peed all over me.
He peed on my face, he peed everywhere.
- It's not funny, it's juvenile.
- The b to p ratio is crazy.
I mean the ball to penis ratio is crazy.
- You whip it out that much on camera Kornfeld,
what do you expect?
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
- Look, I am not going to sit here
and apologize for my success.
- [Interviewer] No one's asking you to do that.
- I appreciate that.
I look back to those early videos
of me with my friends not wearing pants.
It's probably the happiest I've ever been.
Don't tell my girlfriend that.
(mischievous music)
- Hi my name is Kelsey Darragh.
From March to May 2016
I created and starred in a BuzzFeed show
called the Ladies Room.
It was great, we had lots of stars like GloZell, Snooki,
Hannah Hart, lots of fun.
- [Interviewer] So what happened?
- Zach Kornfeld happened.
- So one day Kelsey comes up to me in the office
and she goes, hey Zach,
would you like to be in episode seven of Ladies Room?
And I go, O-M-G Kelsey, yes.
Yes I would like that very much.
Oh my god, I can't wait.
How fun.
And she's like, O-M-G, that's wonderful.
You're so great.
This is gonna be awesome.
You're my favorite male person.
Everything is great.
High five!
- Everyone told Kelsey it was a mistake.
It's called Ladies Room.
I mean what is he even doing there?
- [Narrator] Despite warnings,
production began on Ladies Room
with its first ever male guest.
Zach Kornfeld.
Director Patrick Ward insisted
we not show his face in this video.
This is Patrick Ward.
- In this episode, Kelsey had an idea for Zach
to do a pee-off.
Look I just shoot the thing, okay?
I had a dream to shoot big stuff,
but sometimes you gotta pay the bills.
- It's a literal pissing contest.
It's funny.
It's supposed to be funny.
(sighs) It was supposed to be funny.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] In the episode,
Kornfeld engages in a piss battle
against fellow Try Guy...
(laughing)
In the episode, Kornfeld engages
in a piss battle against fellow Try Guy
Keith Habersberger.
- I didn't know we were filming until we got there,
and then my first thought was, oh here we go again.
- So I don't think Keith had any idea what we were shooting,
but Zach, he was like weirdly into it.
- He has a huge dick.
Flacid.
- But I remember the game was to pee into the urinal
and walk backwards as it happens.
And the person who could go back the farthest
without pissing all over the floor would win.
Keith got a, Keith got stage fright.
- I got pee shy.
Because I'm not comfortable with my dick out,
but Kornfeld...
- He was pissing.
- [Narrator] But when the episode was released
on Saturday May 21st, viewers were quick to notice
a tiny mistake.
(dramatic music)
- I remember it was a Saturday.
I was going about my day as normal.
Kicking it, you know, doing what I do.
And then I, uh, just on a whim, decided to open Twitter.
(suspenseful music)
And there on Twitter.com were tweets
from a brand new account called @NicePenisZach.
And it tweeted at me, nice penis Zach.
I was confused, and I was searching my mind,
what happened?
Did I accidentally open up my camera phone
while I was peeing and post to Snapchat?
Did someone hack my computer?
And then I thought, well, what video came out today?
And there it was.
(glass shattering)
No!
(dramatic music)
So I quickly discover that my (bleep)-ing penis
is on the internet for anyone to see.
There was a censor bar, like a badge over my penis
and it slipped off for like a full second.
And so there is just little Zach hanging out in full view,
for everyone to see.
Just, just hanging out there.
Like most of the shaft.
So I am just getting bombarded with tweets.
Penis this, penis that, penis, penis.
I go on YouTube and all of the comments are about my penis.
That's it.
No one cares about the video.
Every comment on the video is just,
hey did you see Zach's penis?
Hey, I think I see Zach's penis.
Hey, is that Zach's penis?
Penis, penis, penis.
Everything about my penis.
(panting)
(growling)
(spooky music)
(growing)
No!
(dramatic music)
No!
(continued growling)
And then, that first account, @NicePenisZach,
tweets at me a screen shot of my penis
along with a caption,
it's small, but I still love you.
It's small.
It's small, but I still love you.
You know what?
I wanna see how does your penis look when you're peeing?
No, no no no,
you come in here into my house,
you pull down your pants right now
and you show me how mighty is your penis when you're peeing?
Let's see what your (bleep)-ing pee-
you know what, no, no, I'm take,
I'm not, I need a second.
This is not... (sighs)
It's ridiculous.
Of course, of course your penis
doesn't look good when you're peeing.
Your penis doesn't define you.
I'm sorry about that.
I don't wanna see anyone's penis, peeing or otherwise.
- [Narrator] Why don't we just move on?
- Yeah let's, okay, great, great.
We can cut that, cool.
so where were we?
(dramatic music)
At the time only a handful of people at the company
had access and permission to upload
and delete from the channel.
So I reached out to Maycie.
- Hi I'm Maycie Timpone.
I'm the executive director of video and social publishing
at BuzzFeed.
So that day was coincidentally our team outing.
And so I was at brunch when I got the text from Zach.
I was drunk. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
- So Maycie isn't just out drinking, it turns out.
She was out drinking with the entire curation team.
This is their team outing,
they're at a boozy brunch together.
Every single person in the known universe who can help me
and delete this video is drunk, together,
without a computer.
I need to do something and I need to do it now.
So I jump in my car.
(rock music)
(engine revving)
I get behind the wheel in my whip, a Prius C.
35 miles per gallon in the city, 25 horse power,
I peel away and make my way to the brunch.
I'm ripping through the streets,
and my Prius C is driving more like a Prius X.
(tires screeching)
I come to a screeching halt.
I get to the brunch and jump outta that car.
Get over here.
And they're like, O-M-G, Zach?
What are you doing here?
I run up, I throw them in the car.
I peel away burning rubber and racing against the clock.
Every minute wasted is another minute
that my penis is out on the internet.
(engine revving)
(screaming)
(tires screeching)
At one point the cops start chasing us.
That was crazy.
(police sirens blaring)
I'm driving through the canyon
and I shake them on the last turn.
(horns honking)
(exploding)
(high pitch ringing)
We get to the office.
We run up the stairs.
I find the computer.
I'm typing away.
(squealing)
- [Narrator] That's the real story?
- Yeah.
- I called our channel manager,
she deleted the video immediately,
And then we re-uploaded a new one a couple of hours later.
(moody music)
- We were able to delete the video,
but the damage was already done.
- [Narrator] Far more than they could have imagined.
In the three hours that the video was up,
at least two peen shots that we know of
were uploaded to a popular photo sharing site.
- Once it's on the internet, it's out there forever.
- You can't expect to put a dick on the internet
and just have it melt away.
- It's the World Wide Web.
We gobble up dicks.
Gobble gobble.
- I totally used to look up to Zach.
But after that I...
- Well we know Zach has a problem.
You know he's very fixated on immature comedy.
And you know, he also has a fantastic dick.
So it's hard to blame him sometimes.
- The worst part was that we canceled Ladies Room
after that episode.
Mostly because of the views but I blame Zach's penis.
- You know the worst part is my daughter
had a dance recital that day.
I had to leave early to edit this pee video.
- You know what the worst part about all of this is?
Zach hasn't learned.
He still keeps taking his pants off.
- Honestly the worst part is that like
twelve different people quality checked
that video at BuzzFeed and nobody realized
that they were looking at my penis.
I mean that's pretty demoralizing.
So ultimately, that is why I left BuzzFeed.
Right now, I know that my penis is,
is out there.
Somewhere on the internet right this second
my penis is out there.
Forever.
All alone.
- [Narrator] What would you ever do
if you encountered that photo again?
- Of my penis?
Oh, I, I don't know, I...
(knocking)
Are you guys, I'm not expecting anyone, are you?
- Hi. (sighs)
(sad music)
Hi Zach.
- My penis.
What are you doing here?
- I had to come.
- You shafted me.
You blew it for both of us.
- Look, I didn't come because I have
a boner to pick with you, okay?
I came to get real.
- You have some balls showing up here.
- This has been really hard, on me, for a while now.
- I hate to admit it but I...
I missed you.
- I missed us.
I missed our play dates.
I missed our fun times.
Missed me and Zach time.
- Come here.
(uplifting music)
I'm so sorry.
- I'm the one that should be sorry.
- For everything.
- Oh god, everything was my fault.
- No I should never have put you in that position.
- I love the positions.
I love all positions.
- I forgive you.
- Shh, shh.
I forgive you.
- And I love you. - And I love you.
- Wanna get some coffee?
- I drink tea actually.
- [Penis] What?
- Yeah.
- [Penis] What happened?
- I was, it affected you.
- That makes so much sense now.
- What do you say?
Hey, take my hand.
Let's get outta here.
- [Penis] Let's go.
- Hi I'm Zach.
- Hi I'm Zach's penis.
- And we are back together again,
and really couldn't be happier.
- Seriously.
- It's just been really wonderful
to get to know each other again, you know,
to have a relationship on our own terms.
Because who cares what the internet thinks?
We're together and we're one.
- I'm just happy to be home.
Have a roof over my head, pants to sleep in.
- [Zach] I think that people are intimidated
by the idea of him, but he's just a real softy.
- [Penis] I think that they are all just people you know.
- [Zach] Yeah.
- I love this shirt.
- Thank you yeah, you like it?
I feel like you've been a great influence on me.
- [Penis] Hey, you too man.
- You know I wake up really early and he is just there
and he is alert and ready to go.
- I'm a morning guy.
I'm a morning person.
- He really is.
Do we have any regrets?
- [Penis] No.
No regrets.
- What's the saying?
All's well that ends well. - Ends well.
- This with a happy ending.
- Oh!
You are so sweet.
- No you're so sweet.
- Oh stop.
- You stop it.
- No you stop it! - You stop.
I'll make you stop it.
(laughing)
All right.
- [Narrator] Do you realize that no one was looking for
or even aware of your penis photo,
and by making this video, you're basically
daring the audience to seek it out and share the link?
Something they never, ever would have done otherwise.
You're daring them.
- Huh.
- Okay.
- Huh.
(mischievous music)
- Okay, so here's the deal.
If someone posts that picture in the comments of this video
and you click it, you're nasty.
- You a nasty.
- You nasty.
- You a nasty.
- And you have to live the rest of your life
knowing that you clicked on a picture of my wiener.
- Of his wiener, of me.
- This guy, that guy, when I specifically
asked you not to. - Not to.
- Specifically said that. - Specifically.
You know what, shame on you.
- Shame on you.
- You, shame on you.
- Shame on the internet.
- The whole internet.
Shame on, shame on, shame on me.
- Yeah shame on you,
that was your bad. - Shame on me I think, yes.
This one's my bad.
Yeah I kinda (beep)-ed this up.
(rock music)
- Zach's so obsessed with his dick,
he spun a whole narrative where we joke about how big it is,
when it's totally not true.
It's way bigger than you think.
(laughing)