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The story of fitness influencer Connor Murphy is as bizarre as it can get. He started out as a humble fitness influencer sharing workout and nutrition tips on YouTube.
As time went on, though, Murphy’s videos didn’t quite resemble the happy-go-lucky young man his audience had come to know and admire.
What happened to Connor Murphy?
The fitness influencer’s YouTube journey started on January 9, 2016 when he uploaded his first video titled: Connor Murphy Natural Body Transformation.
The video gained popularity, as it showcased a 13-year year old skinny boy adding significant muscle mass over four years and becoming a lean bodybuilder by the time he was 21.
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Following that, he started uploading exercise videos, workout tips, nutrition guides, and others. However, Murphy didn’t just attract the audience who watched YouTube for fitness motivation but also targeted people who watched funny and prank videos. He would post prank videos where he would pose as a mannequin.
While all that helped his views and YouTube popularity, he hit the jackpot when he uploaded a video called ‘Aesthetics on Omegle Original’. The video showed reactions from girls who matched him on Omegle when he opened his shirt and showed off his ripped physique. Within half a year of posting the first Omegle series video, he acquired over 100K subscribers.
The fact that girls reacted to his shirtless self birthed another idea for Murphy, and he created a new series. There, the premise was to go out on the streets, talk to girls, and look for any excuse to take off his shirt. He didn’t care if the reactions were positive or negative; he uploaded them as a part of the series.
Given the context of these videos, it was quite easy to feel cringy or roast Murphy, and that's exactly what h3h3Productions did. Murphy, though, used that negative criticism in his favor and urged everyone to check out the video.
This likable attitude put him on the path to acquiring over one million subscribers. Unfortunately, it seems like after acquiring over a million subscribers, something snapped in Murphy, and he disappeared.
The disappearance and reappearance of Connor Murphy
After six months of blowing up with over a million subscribers, Connor Murphy disappeared. No one quite knows what happened, but he didn’t upload anything for over five months. When he returned, he only uploaded eight videos over the span of a year. Unfortunately, for him, the videos didn't do as good as his earlier ones.
His views dropped to less than five million per month in 2019 from over 20 million in the beginning of 2018. Not only was he struggling with views, but his prank ideas had become outdated by the time 2019 rolled around.
When 2020 came, COVID-19 hit the world, and global lockdowns were enforced. That meant Murphy couldn’t go outside to interact with others for his videos, which was primarily his whole act. He was forced to return to the Omegle series. Even when the lockdown was lifted, he returned to filming outside, but the views dropped to below three million per month.
Eventually, Murphy decided to move to Los Angeles from Austin, Texas, to pursue an acting career. That was the beginning of Connor Murphy's YouTube downfall.
His videos revealed that Murphy lost significant muscle mass, and he justified that by claiming that he had added 1-2% body fat percentage. However, there were speculations that Murphy had become addicted to something.
YouTuber Patrick Lyons confirmed that Murphy had tried a psychedelic substance called Ayahuasca in early 2020.
That was around the same time Murphy’s content became concerning, where he moved to speak about spirituality while giving a hippie vibe rather than uploading fitness and prank content.
It reached a dangerous level where Connor Murphy suffered from God complex, and referred to himself as being God. Most of his ramblings were incoherent, and he showed signs of mental illness. There was a video where he went on about heaven and spirituality with his parents for two hours.
As his mental illness became more evident, his audience became concerned. The police arrived at his doorstep to check on his safety when he uploaded a video titled 'Connor Murphy Goodbye Video'. For his safety, he was kept under observation for two weeks in a psych ward.
As he got better, his talk about spiritual awakening remained the same. He even returned to YouTube with a 'I’m Sorry' video, but it wasn’t enough to convince his audience to stay. His viewership and audience kept plummeting.
Even today, Murphy is uploading videos on YouTube and is active on social media and seems to be back in shape. However, his videos do not get views anywhere close to the millions he once used to.
Will there be a rise after the fall for Connor Murphy?
