What is Sean Murphy's Butt?

It is an April 2022 viral Twitter video of Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy getting hit in the rear by a Tampa Bay Rays pitch, which fans turned into a running joke about his backside.

Where did Sean Murphy's Butt come from?

The clip is from a live MLB broadcast of a Rays-A's game on April 11, 2022, and Twitter user @PadresGeekster uploaded the slow-motion replay that went viral the same night.

What does Sean Murphy's Butt mean?

The joke is that Murphy's rear looked striking on the replay, so fans compared him to Stupid Sexy Flanders and dubbed him Thickey Henderson, a Rickey Henderson pun.

How do you use Sean Murphy's Butt?

Users typically repost the slow-motion clip with cake emojis, pair it with the Stupid Sexy Flanders scene, or add sound effects like the TikTok bell-chime edit that circulated on April 12, 2022.

Is Sean Murphy's Butt still popular?

The clip peaked in the 48 hours after April 11, 2022, drawing 400,000 likes on the original tweet, and later resurfaces mostly as a baseball Twitter callback rather than an ongoing format.

Sean Murphy's Butt

2022viral videodeclining

Published November 14, 2026

Sean Murphy's Butt is a viral April 2022 baseball clip showing Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy getting struck in the rear by a Tampa Bay Rays fastball. The slow-motion broadcast footage drew more than 400,000 likes on Twitter in 48 hours, with fans joking about the shape of his backside and nicknaming him Thickey Henderson.

baseball memes body image memes accidental fame memes celebrity nickname memes double entendre memes

Overview

Sean Murphy's Butt centers on a short slow-motion broadcast clip where a 93 mph Chris Mazza fastball connects with the Oakland Athletics catcher's rear during an at-bat against the Tampa Bay Rays1. Baseball Twitter fixated less on the plunking itself and more on how shapely Murphy's backside looked on the replay, which turned a routine hit-by-pitch into a joke format about his anatomy6.

Typical posts fall into two buckets. The first is riffs and nicknames, such as @fergoe's quip calling Murphy Thickey Henderson, a play on Hall of Fame Oakland A Rickey Henderson2. The second is photoshop and video edits that pair the pitch with The Simpsons' Stupid Sexy Flanders bit, with users like writer Parker Molloy stitching the two moments side by side4. A TikTok-style bell-sound remix added a cartoonish ding at the moment of contact6.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

@PadresGeekster

Date

2022

On April 11, 2022, Tampa Bay Rays reliever Chris Mazza threw a pitch that struck A's catcher Sean Murphy in the rear-end during a regular-season game. That evening, Twitter user @PadresGeekster uploaded the slow-motion televised replay of the moment1. The tweet gained roughly 71,000 retweets, 20,000 quote-tweets and 400,000 likes within about 48 hours6.

How It Spread

Reactions to the clip were immediate and centered on the look of Murphy's rear on the replay. Within hours, @fergoe tweeted the Thickey Henderson nickname, a Rickey Henderson pun that baseball fans spread widely2. Murphy's own teammate Tony Kemp tweeted "Murph got cake" with two cake emojis, a post that saw over 200 retweets and 2,700 likes in a day3.

Photoshops arrived next. Parker Molloy posted a Stupid Sexy Flanders comparison that drew more than 200 retweets and 1,900 likes4, and sports writer Jesse Spector shared a similar Simpsons mashup5. On April 12, 2022, a user reposted a TikTok edit by @oksurewaitwhat that added a bell chime at the instant of impact, which picked up 12,000 likes on Twitter in a day6. Coverage on Athletics blog Athletics Nation collected several of the jokes the next morning7.

Timeline

2022-04-11

Chris Mazza's pitch hits Sean Murphy in the rear during an A's-Rays game; @PadresGeekster uploads the slow-motion clip hours later.

2022-04-11

@fergoe coins the Thickey Henderson nickname as the clip spreads on baseball Twitter.

2022-04-11

A's outfielder Tony Kemp joins in with a 'Murph got cake' tweet aimed at his teammate.

2022-04-11

Parker Molloy and Jesse Spector post Stupid Sexy Flanders comparison edits.

2022-04-12

A TikTok edit by @oksurewaitwhat adds a bell sound to the moment of impact and crosses 12,000 likes when shared on Twitter.