Nintendo’s Luigi memed for sharing first name with alleged CEO killer

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Super Mario’s brother, Luigi, is finally getting the spotlight. But for all the wrong reasons.

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The beloved Nintendo sidekick is trending on social media, not for starring in kick-ass video games, but rather unfortunately sharing the same first name as Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who was gunned down last week in New York City.

The online world is always quick to poke fun at real-life events, most often with off-colour jokes and memes. Soon after Mangione was identified and arrested, the green hat-wearing, moustached Mario brother trended, with people creating memes featuring the Nintendo character.

The most prominent meme that went viral online was created by Spencer Althouse, Buzzfeed’s deputy editorial director, who shared an image of an X post supposedly from Nintendo of America, which depicted an image of Luigi behind bars.

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“Free Luigi,” read the caption of the supposed X post, which noted “This Tweet has been deleted” below it.

“Nintendo has spoken,” Althouse wrote in his post, with many believing it was real.

In a later post, Althouse came out and implied the image was fake and a “dumb photoshopped Luigi joke” that got nearly 350,000 likes.

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“The internet is truly so wild because not only does my dumb photoshopped Luigi joke have nearly 350K likes, but people now claim they really saw it on Nintendo’s page smh lol,” he wrote.

Fact-checking website Snopes even came out and calmed some nerves to state that the supposed Nintendo post was indeed fake.

That didn’t stop the memes from coming, though, as more people had fun with the Nintendo character.

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Another viral meme depicts Luigi in four AI-created images meant to show what motivated the shooting and Mangione’s subsequent arrest by police.

The first image shows Luigi on a ship destined to dock at Liberty Island in New York City. A second image shows an upset Luigi in the hospital with an elderly woman being denied health-care coverage.

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A third image shows the Nintendo character (allegedly) standing in front of a man’s body, holding a gun. The final image shows Luigi being led away by a police officer.

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“A tragedy in four parts,” read the post on X, which garnered more than 109,000 likes.

Another viral meme circulating online shows Luigi from the 2023 animated film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, standing tall with the caption “You just got Luigi’d” in big bold green letters.

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“A teaser poster for The Super Mario Bros. Movie just became the most ominous thing you can send to a CEO:” read an X post that featured the poster.

As details of Mangione’s case continue to be revealed, Nintendo’s copyright lawyers may become very busy, as there’s no telling how many more Luigi memes will be produced.

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