Meme-ing Mangione: Re-attuning Affect and Activating a Folk Hero

Abstract

On December 9th, 2024, Luigi Mangione was arrested for assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a shocking act of political violence intended to spark public discourse about the United States’ privatized healthcare system. The event quickly became what Douglas Kellner terms a media spectacle, transforming Mangione into a viral sensation. Rather than facing universal condemnation, Mangione was celebrated by notable segments of the public in online discourse, where he was portrayed as a folk hero. Drawing on theories of the media spectacle, affect, and Eric Jenkins’ modal analysis, this thesis argues that Mangione-themed memes didn’t merely reflect public sentiment but helped structure how audiences encountered his image. I introduce the concept of memetic modulation, in which the affective and cultural associations of a principal subject are re-attuned by the addition of familiar cultural referents. Through a close textual analysis of three Luigi Mangione memes, treated as circulating fragments of broader modes of engagement, this thesis demonstrates how memetic discourse can redirect affective associations and activate distinct relations between audiences and circulating media subjects.