Oh my, Luigi Mangione may be a fan of the last show I was expecting and now I have even more questions

More details emerge by the hour in the case of Luigi Mangione, the man charged in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

It took just under a week for Mangione to be captured by authorities, and in the hours since his arrest information has been flying as the public tries to make sense of his motivations. It seems chronic pain and the continued failures of the American healthcare system are major culprits behind his turn to violence, but it’s a completely separate detail that’s currently breaking my mind in two.

It’s an unfortunate reality that much of Mangione’s history lines up with his decision to kill a high-ranking healthcare executive: He was intelligent and driven, cited by many as kind and affable, but he was also suffering; that suffering, paired with a brutal 2023 spinal surgery, seems to have finally pushed Mangione to the brink. But long before he was lugging around 3D-printed guns he was part of a thoroughly unexpected fan club.

Brace yourselves, people, because the man currently being hailed as a folk hero of the modern age is a Gleek. That’s right, 26-year-old Mangione, the shockingly attractive man charged with murder, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm, is a fan of Glee according to a rapidly-circulating online rumor.

Before I go any further with this two things must be noted: One, the font on the central tweet making the Glee claim indicates that it’s a fake, and two, Glee is a massively unhinged show and not enough people acknowledge that. As one user joked in response to the claim “he’s (supposedly) bisexual and unhinged. Being a gleek is a given.”

The claim comes from X user @perdekalorfer, who reposted a clearly doctored post from Mangione on Dec. 9. It features a response supposedly from the 26-year-old claiming “the glee version is better.” The font is all wrong, which makes it relatively clear that the post was made in jest, but it still checks out more than most people might think.

It’s probably been a while since you dove into the wild world of Glee, but since I had a well-timed return to the series literally hours ago, let me remind you of a few things. The pilot episode of this show, all by itself, is truly insane, and that fact may make a solid argument for Mangione’s actual status among its fans.

Y’all, this show starts its story with a teacher blackmailing a student into joining a singing club — did you forget how Finn joined? — and with several truly mind-boggling displays of bullying. Shooting someone point-blank with a dozen paintball guns would do damage, people. And yet it’s played for laughs.

In later episodes, Will’s wife pretends to be pregnant to the point of wearing a fake belly and tries to buy a baby off a high schooler; the kids are engaged in even more brutal displays of bullying; a teenager attempts to seduce their teacher; a teacher gapes at a naked student before quietly retreating; good God, the first Glee teacher is canned for assaulting his students — this show is genuinely insane. All of a sudden its connection to American Horror Story is a lot more understandable.

With that in mind, Mangione’s likely-fabricated love of Glee suddenly checks out. It also aligns strangely well with the 26-year-old’s musical taste, which reportedly includes Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift, and the 1975.

The truly banana-pants Glee was seen, for years, as an easygoing and sweet musical offering, but in retrospect, it’s weird as all hell, strangely criminal at way too many points, and apparently a bingeing favorite for superstar shooters with a taste for McDonald’s.