The funniest take of the UnitedHealthcare CEO slaying so far is emerging online in response to alleged killer Luigi Mangione‘s frequented video games.
Video games often become a talking point in the wake of violence, but this time people really think they’ve done something as they dig into revelations about Mangione’s past. We now know about the chronic pain he suffered, about his rapid withdrawal from his friends and family, and even about what shows he probably didn’t actually watch. Fresh revelations about Mangione’s video game preferences are likewise coming to light, and while one in particular is hilariously on point, it doesn’t reveal any further information on the 26-year-old’s mental state.
Mangione, like every other gamer on the planet, got into Among Us in 2020. It was one of two primary video game lifelines during the early months of the pandemic, and we will forever thank it — alongside Animal Crossing: New Horizons — for keeping us sane in crazy times.
The game has a straightforward approach. A group of different-colored cartoon astronauts are working to keep their ship up and running, all while avoiding and trying to suss out which among them is an imposter. Said imposters sabotage their peers and kill them off, all while trying to avoid detection and entrap their fellow crew mates.
It’s a delightful game, and it was also among the most talked-about titles of 2020. Its not strange, in any way, that Mangione played it, but it is an amusing bit of irony. This was noted by a friend of the alleged assassin, who told NBC News that he “just found it extremely ironic that, you know, we were in this game and there could actually be a true killer among us.”
Since the whole point of Among Us is sussing out the secret killer in our ranks, Mangione’s enjoyment of the game comes with a heaping helping of irony, but there’s no link beyond that to his ultimate decision to kill Brian Thompson. Playing any video game will not make you a killer — good god, we’ve re-litigated this 5 billion times over the last few decades — but a game like Among Us is most certainly not lending to anyone’s slow spiral into a serial killer.
That’s already a rising narrative, however, as people link Mangione’s Among Us history to his current status as an alleged assassin. They’re somehow linking the two together, as though Mangione played a few rounds of the goofy whodunnit and decided to add “healthcare CEO slayer” to his list of accomplishments.
His decision to go after Thompson had absolutely zero to do with Among Us, but there’s plenty of humor to be found in the ironic parallels between the game and real life. Green was always a little sus, now that I think about it, and Mangione practically vented right out of dodge once the deed was done. It’s all coming together.