Luigi Mangione should not be famous. And yet, in some corners of TikTok, his name has become a pop culture gag. It’s absurd, weird and exactly the kind of humor that Gen Z loves.
While his crime is no secret, it actually adds to the joke and makes him even more interesting. This young generation of social media users continue to toe the line between awareness and apathy.
The more people do this, the more indifferent they become toward wrongdoing. Even when audiences know someone has scammed or hurt others, they are entertained by it rather than outraged. People are rewarding wrongdoing with attention.
Mangione first made headlines in 2024 for allegedly murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a shocking act of violence that quickly made him one of the most famous men on the planet. But Mangione’s rise to fame is completely by design and the symptom of a larger disease: apathy. It’s another illustration of how Gen Z has grown fascinated with the morally dubious, often turning real-life scandals into a source of entertainment.
Due to Thompson’s role as a healthcare executive, 41% of young Americans believe his death was “somewhat acceptable” or “acceptable.” People post cakes with Mangione’s face on them and TikTok edits and write him letters in prison.
This fits a pattern of crime being turned into a social media meme. For instance, “Hot Felon” Jeremy Meeks turned his mugshot into a career. They called it #feloncrushFriday, and he was signed to a modeling agency in LA. Anna Delvey, the convicted scammer who swindled New York’s elite, inspired Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” and competed on Dancing With The Stars. Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was famously imprisoned for her role in her mother’s murder, walked into instant fame and amassed millions of followers, landed a documentary deal and made millions of dollars since being released.
Delvey is a prime example of how celebrating crime can be dangerous. Despite being a known con artist, she has profited from brand deals, gained a massive online following and turned her notoriety into influence. And it’s our clicks and shares that help build her fame, showing our indifference to her wrongdoing.
This generation isn’t glorifying crime, though; it’s rebranding it. Told through humor and irony, it’s all fun and games until the lines between actual harm and entertainment start to blur.
On TikTok, for instance, a creator decorates cookies while telling stories of gruesome true crime cases. From rape and murder to kidnapping, she fills the top with colorful figures and symbols from the cases as well. The creator, @karenthibakes, has over 2.5 million followers and 113 million likes, plus merchandise, a podcast and a website. Sickening events become palatable or even soothing. It’s almost like ASMR, turning the horror of the case into a strangely soothing experience, because watching the videos and listening to the narration softens the heaviness of the topic.
Somewhere between her mixing bowl and hitting post, the crime becomes content. The focus is no longer on the act itself, but the way it is repackaged for attention and profit.
The same phenomenon recently played out with the “Hot Louvre Suspects”, who took the internet by storm after their mugshots from the Paris Louvre Heist started circulating online. Millions of dollars’ worth of stolen art were quickly overshadowed by TikTok edits praising the suspects’ looks. Again, the focus faded from the crime and surrounded the criminals. However, it wasn’t for the right reasons. This again shows how online culture shifts users’ attention from acts to aesthetics.
That’s the strange genius and incredible discomfort associated with this generation's online presence. It transforms tragedy, scandals and violence into something consumable and entertaining. In a digital world where clicks and views decide relevance, infamy has become a surprisingly reliable path to fame and fortune.
People need to stop rewarding crime with fame. While this may attract interest in cases, it poses a real danger to society when people begin to excuse crimes and poor behavior due to the attractiveness or entertainment factor of a criminal.
Safa is a sophomore and Opinion Editor studying journalism. Do you agree that Gen Z has a weird relationship with infamy? Send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com
