Whenever big news breaks, the internet is always there to make inappropriate jokes about it. But after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death in New York last week, it began Social media reaction It shocked many Mainstream mediawho said they were disturbed by the horrific jokes and often cheerful reactions to the murder of a health insurance executive.
The alleged shooter, Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania on Monday and charged with second-degree murder, police said. Criminal complaint In New York on Tuesday. The launch of Mangione, along with the creation of McDonald’s, has turned what was already a meme-fest of historic proportions into a nonstop stream of online browsing.
Perhaps Laura Ingraham of Fox News best demonstrated the berating that was happening on television, along with the hypocrisy that comes with supporting your own kind of vigilante killers.
“Instagram posts from crazy people that she sent me during a commercial break earlier… are crazy,” Ingraham said. “Like he’s cute, he’s this… and people are celebrating this. This is sick. Honestly, it’s very disappointing. But I think we shouldn’t be surprised.”
Ingraham then immediately turned to a murder she supported, that of Daniel Penny, who strangled a homeless man to death on a New York subway and was acquitted of manslaughter on Monday.
“And the next one, Daniel Penny, a lot of people think he’s a hero. And tonight he’s not guilty. My next take,” Ingraham said.
INGRAHAM: Instagram posts from walnut people…people celebrating. This is sick, honestly, it’s very disappointing, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised… Next up, the other big news from New York, Danielle Penny, a lot of people think he’s a hero. pic.twitter.com/DRi5d1QNTv
– Asin (@Asin) December 10, 2024
What kind of “disease” was Ingraham referring to online? If you missed it, you’re definitely living under a rock. But we’ve rounded up some of the memes and jokes we’ve seen below to give you an idea of what people are talking about.
There have been plenty of jokes about Luigi from Super Mario Bros., including a deleted fake tweet that was photoshopped to make it look like Nintendo requested the suspect’s release. Let’s be clear, Nintendo did not send the tweet.
Nintendo was cooking, why were they deleted 😭 pic.twitter.com/rnwfGegJDz
– Hard videos (@vidsthatgohard) December 10, 2024
– Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) December 9, 2024
Then there were the jokes about the fact that Mangione was picked up at McDonald’s.
– John “BrewersRaptor” Egan (@BrewersRaptor) December 10, 2024
Mims also pointed to other killers who have been glorified in the media in one way or another, including Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who brought a gun to civil rights protests in Wisconsin and killed two people. Rittenhouse claimed self-defense and was acquitted in the murder trial.
Many people were also joking about giving Mangione an alibi for the day of the murder.
– Courage is the way (@Gritty20202) December 10, 2024
There were also a lot of jokes that added new elements to existing memes, video trends, and animation.
– Comrade Cisco 🖖🏾✊🏿 (@Pinko69420) December 10, 2024
They make edits for fans on TIKTOK pic.twitter.com/vZlIt8TUDn
— Tooth 🔆🇵🇸🇮🇪 (@toothbrushlord) December 7, 2024
The number of murder poems on sites like TikTok has been quite astonishing, with the likes of artists Thomas Francis and Mepso Singing about murder is in a long folk tradition.
Some videos, such as a song by musician Joe DeVito, have been taken down by TikTok for “violating community guidelines,” although DeVito’s video is still available on platforms like Instagram.
DeVito confirmed to Gizmodo that his video was taken down by the platform, not him, and said he was inspired to write the song because he sees the health care system as a form of profiteering.
“With Brian Thompson in the news, I’ve been thinking about the health care crisis in the United States and realizing more and more how it’s just a legal form of extortion…and middle-class Americans for the benefit of the wealthy and so on,” DeVito told Gizmodo via email.
There were also plenty of jokes about how attractive Mangione was, something that came up again and again even before the public knew his name and could only recognize what he looked like from security camera footage.
There are even crafts inspired by Mangione and his statement.
Naturally, there were conspiracy theorists on Twitter who couldn’t help but turn things even stranger by trying to find hidden messages in everything posted about the murder.
Memecoins have also appeared, which is expected in the cryptocurrency community. Before Mangione’s name was known, we saw it Defense refused Deposit-Under the title Coins inspired by words he allegedly wrote on bullet casings found at the scene of the murder. But since Mangione’s name became public, new coins have emerged Luigi themes.
Where will all this go next while Mangione sits in prison? Nobody knows. It’s possible that memes will fade away as the next big story emerges that will become the butt of jokes and celebrations online. But it’s also possible that Mangione will become a kind of folk hero with a very long shelf life for people who feel like they’ve been corrupted by the U.S. health care system. This includes so many Americans that it seems to include every possible demographic in this country.
The memes collected here barely scratch the surface of what’s happening right now. There is so much being shared about this murder that it is impossible to keep up. As more information emerges about what may have inspired someone to kill a healthcare executive, it’s very likely that the Internet will continue to talk about it and the horribly broken healthcare system in the United States.