Skip to main content

Brandon Phillips is super stoked to open this Papa John's pizza box

Better ingredients, better pizza, better reaction GIFs.

This GIF is from Sunday, but that doesn't matter, because it is very, very important.

As is the case with many MLB teams, the Braves have a promotion through national pizza chain Papa John's to provide you, the fan, with discounted pizza if the team scores five or more runs. On Sunday, Atlanta beat Cincinnati, 13–8, which meant 50% off of pizza and a bunch of other stuff. But it also meant this GIF of Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips opening a pizza box and reacting like he'd just seen the face of God.

I know that Phillips isn't an actor, but I'm not here to crap on his reaction to a lukewarm circle of cheese, tomato sauce and dubiously sourced meat. (For the best description of Papa John's pies, please refer to Vice Sports writer and all-around good dude David Roth, who is as much of an expert on this subject as any one human should want to be.) I'm here to share in his joy and revel in his true happiness. This is a man being told off-screen "Okay, Brandon, you're opening that pizza box, and in it, you find everything you've ever wanted out of this world, everything you've ever loved," and he's nailing the hell out of that direction.

Also, he's making the exact same face that Aziz Ansari makes when he's excited about something.

brandon-phillips-aziz-ansari.jpg

Anyway, Phillips isn't the only Braves player who's been asked to act opposite an inanimate cardboard box—see here, here and here for other recent examples—but he's definitely the one who conveys the most excitement at the prospect of spending less money on fast food thanks to his team scoring an arbitrarily set number of runs (though shouts to Matt Kemp for a perfect "Ooh" reaction). Thank you for this, Brandon.