- Let's make a sex symbol.
(giggles)
I'm just gonna put this there.
- What people think makes a sexy man
has changed a lot over the past 100 years.
- We are going to be recreating photos of the most
revolutionary male sex symbols,
- Throughout history.
- But there are only four of us,
so we're gonna get a little help from some of our friends.
- Sex symbols, you're looking at one.
- No well, you will be,
because that's what we're doing today.
- I mean I guess my great-grandmother
might have thought that he was steamy,
but she died.
I'll be recreating Rudolph Valentino.
"Who's that?" You ask.
Well, so did I.
He is a film star in the 1920s,
and he is the original Latin Lover.
He played an Arab lead character
because as an Italian-American he was the exotic one.
The most popular male sex icon was getting
all this criticism for being effeminate.
He was just beautiful all around.
I feel like this is a theme we're gonna see later.
People are scared of what's too sexy.
I'm not supposed to be talking, am I?
- No, you're a silent film star.
(swing music)
He didn't even open his mouth
and there was 100,000 people at his funeral.
Would that happen today if Justin Bieber died?
He might get 100,000 likes on a RIP Bieber photo.
I still have that to live up to.
- So he was so adored that Hitler wanted him as a pet.
Which is, I guess, I would take as a compliment.
I'm delighted to play the King of Hollywood.
Especially because it's this
old school funny sort of masculine.
He's always smiling and kind of winking.
Even in "Gone with the Wind" they're like,
"What do you think, Rhett?" And he's like,
"I don't know, if we can't defeat the North,
we don't have enough cannons."
He's almost like a proto Clooney,
in that he was a silver fox at a very young age.
He's just an old man who has giant ears
and a weird cat-like grin.
So if I'm gonna be a sexy man,
I wanna be the weirdest-looking sexy man I can possibly be.
[imitating Gable] Hello, my daughter died on a pony.
Al these actors from back in the day,
they were all soldiers,
they were laying their lives on the line.
[imitating Gable] We don't have enough cannons.
Nowadays, no one comes to mind.
I don't think Channing Tatum is out there.
I look like a weirdo by today's standards,
but that's okay.
I feel the sexiest I've ever felt.
- The real trick is, though, not wearing anything
under the trench coat.
That makes it easier to have sex with 1,000 women.
I am going to be Humphrey Bogart.
Humphrey is very serious and very stoic.
If you look back at the acting in all those old films,
it's very over-the-top, but he was very grounded.
He was just that good of an actor
to know you just have to do very little.
All these folks talk about how brilliant of an actor he was,
how he started the Rat Pack,
and I would go, "Oh, this is a cool thing."
And then you find out that he was also super insecure like,
"I don't know, am I really a sex icon?"
I think that's super relatable.
I think I'm incredible but that doesn't mean
that I think every beautiful woman would be swooned by me.
I mean, I feel sexier dressed as Humphrey Bogart
than I did before.
[imitating Bogart] Here's looking at you, kid.
The trench coat and the hat are definitely super sexy.
Cigarette, don't smoke.
It's not good but it looks so hot.
Well, there's the proof of him being a sex icon right there.
Your regular Bogeyfest.
Look at how I just make all the money
and party with my rap friends.
- There's very few people my mom has said are attractive.
My mom has always been like,
"Elvis Presley is so beautiful, so talented."
Yeah I'm very familiar with Elvis music.
He's one of those artists that even if you're young,
someone in your family listens to Elvis.
I mean, he's an amazing musician.
What really pushed that forward was just someone being able
to express who they were in a very honest sexual way.
It's crazy how revolutionary just being open
about your dick can be.
Before Elvis you had to be macho and chivalrous.
Elvis kind of just threw it out the window.
He just thrusted and let's just skip all the dressing
and get right to the salad.
Is that a gross analogy I just made?
Elvis was opening a lot of different doors, culturally,
that led him to many of the movements
that happened in the 60s.
So I gotta really swing my dick forward.
- [Photographer] Basically
- Okay.
- [Photographer] One, two, three.
- [imitating Elvis] Thank you, thank you very much.
Thank you, thank you for my dick swing
Especially today when we see so many different artists
being able to showcase their bodies
in ways that are very freeing.
I think we owe a lot of that to Elvis.
I think I put the P in Elvis.
Get it?
Maisie? Get it? - [Maisie] Got it.
- Oh she got it.
(celebratory clap)
Wait a minute. [imitates Elvis] Yeah.
Am I doing Elvis or Cher, I can't quite tell.
- [Photographer] It's a little bit of both
- [imitates Elvis] Thank you, thank you very much.
- So I'm gonna be recreating Sean Connery.
That was terrible.
I apologize to everyone watching right now.
The best Bond.
I think a certain era of men subscribed to Sean Connery
as their symbol of what a man should look like.
This masculinity defined.
He's the guy who gets all the girls,
he drives the nice cars.
Impeccable taste in clothing,
and he gets to shoot guns and save the day.
If you look like an athlete people kind of assume
that you don't have this sense of class.
so instead of him just being a kind of broodish tough guy,
they gave him this air of sophistication and intelligence.
I feel sexy right now.
[Imitating Connery] Hello Moneypenny
Shaken not stirred.
Sexiest man of the century.
Share your secrets please, of the century?
I don't even know how you even compete with that.
I'm done, I'm done.
[imitating Connery] What else is there.
You're the man now, Dog.
- Of all the photos we're doing today,
this is the most Try Guys photo so I am honored, to...
I was gonna say step into his clothes but I'm not,
I'm stepping out of my clothes.
I am recreating the infamous naked Burt Reynolds photo.
When you think Burt Reynolds, you think stash,
you think the body hair.
He's dead-sexy.
(moaning)
This was the first time that a man
had ever been naked in a major magazine.
After this photo was released,
Reynolds turned into a star overnight.
Women would line up outside of his apartment.
I've taken so many naked photos
and none of them have catapulted me.
In a way it kind of validated female sexuality,
because, guess what, women like looking at naked men too.
And so Burt Reynolds was like, "Hey ladies check me out."
So today, I'm gonna let all of you check me out.
(moaning)
- [Photographer] He just had tons and tons of sex.
- I know what that's like, let's do it.
He just looks like he's having a blast.
He's just naked, he's laughing,
he's on a bare skin rug. It's hilarious.
- [Man] Eugene, is there a reason
you're not wearing a shirt?
- You know, we're friends.
- Is everyone just slowly taking their clothes off?
- Did they just become the weirdest
historical porn ever, right?
There's only one person who's supposed
to have their clothes off
and feel like you guys are kind of stealing my thunder.
Hello there.
- [Man] The mustache is doing something different.
- You think the mustache is good? Oh sorry.
There are a lot of hairy dudes out there,
and I'm appreciative that there is at least one
of these sex symbols who made it really awesome and okay
for you to embrace your natural body hair.
I understand why he was drunk for this.
This angle is wide.
- [Man] Don't worry, Zach, trust us.
- The idea of playing 27 instruments,
I can barely speak English.
Today I get the honor of recreating an image of Prince.
Growing up, Prince was always someone I was intimidated by
because maybe I saw a lot of myself in Prince.
I think he crossed every barrier that there is, musically.
I think it takes a very creative unique mind
that is one of a kind, one in a million,
to be able to cross so many different music worlds.
For me androgyne is something
that has always been something I have been afraid of.
I've had to prove the fact that I was a man, I guess,
instead of embracing all the feminine qualities over myself.
Prince accepted himself and loved himself.
Let's fucking do this.
- [Photographer] I don't think there's been anyone
who's exuviated as much sexiness as he has.
- I'm surprised but gorgeous.
- [Photographer] Yeah, gorgeous.
- I'm using muscles I never knew I had.
In kind of this world that we live in now,
and it's such a beautiful world to be able
to wear fucking lipstick or painted nails and feel accepted.
And I love it.
- Titanic Leo too, like, wow.
That guy's like, you saw him, and wow.
This guy looks like he's 15 but sexy.
I love Leo.
Are you gonna mention that he was on "Growing Pains"?
'Cause that's where I first remember seeing him.
First off, the name Leonardo DiCaprio, come on.
Crazy confused 'cause they're still speaking in Shakespeare.
Can you imagine just being a barista
and your name's Leonardo DiCaprio.
In Gatsby they like re-did it.
That giff, oh my god.
On Quaaludes and stuff.
The Reverend, was that what's called?
Was Leo in the back or the front?
Why do I imagine him in the front
like doing it and Rose was holding him.
I think the closest thing to Leo in recent memory
is Justin Bieber or One Direction,
but I think even Leo then, he just owned the 90s.
Girls would have like binders
and it would just be like cut-outs of him in magazines.
Girls' bedrooms would just be laced with Leo.
I'm excited about Leo bangs.
Hopefully he sees this and hopefully
we kick it on a yacht together.
- [Photographer] Maybe turn and look at me. One, two, three.
(clicks)
- Oh, look how cool. I definitely feel cool.
He's so hot, he cares a lot about the environment
and he's a great actor.
Okay, what's the weird thing, is he a vampire?
Have we ever thought about that?
Do I get my Oscar now, or I have to wait 20 years?
He won an Oscar for...
- [Man] The Revenant. - [Zack] Revenant.
- [Man] Not the Reverend. - [Zack] Not the Reverend.
- He would kind of make shitty tattoos look good,
which is how you know you're really hot.
David Beckham has created a life
that as a kid you would write down in crayons.
He was kind of a sex symbol for sports
before that became a thing.
My family is really into soccer
and even still my little brothers would reference him,
and some of the moves he did.
He was a man-babe,
and actually really fucking good at what he did.
That idea that a man could be more into style and fashion,
especially a straight man, was kind of a new concept.
Especially in the early 2000s.
He kind of did the rebel thing
but then it evolved into a dad and a husband,
which he's doing well.
I think there was something really new
that get got to see his path and carried on.
Him defining this idea of being metrosexual set a bar
for what men have to be now.
He chose a certain confidence in his sexuality.
Now I feel that's a lot more common place.
It's interesting because the one thing that links
what people have seen as sexy in men is just confidence.
Body types change, hairstyles change
but there's a certain natural confidence
which is always hot.
(empowering music)
- It's crazy to see how much the idea of
what makes a man sexy has changed over the past 100 years,
between all the photos that we've taken today.
I'm just curious to see where it goes in the next 50 years.
Internet's forever, huh? - [Man] Yeah.
- Great. - [Man] Cut.
(electronic beat)
- It's a lot of glitter
- [Man] Wow, it's amazing.
(laughter)