Mark Salling Suicide: ‘Glee’ Fans Battle On Twitter Over Comparison To Cory Monteith’s Death
It was revealed this morning that Mark Salling, known for his role as Puck on Glee, committed suicide by hanging. Salling pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in October 2016 and was currently awaiting sentencing, according to TMZ.
Salling is the second cast member of Glee that is deceased, and many are remembering his late co-star, Cory Monteith (who played Finn), today as well.
Monteith passed while Glee was still in production, on July 13, 2013, from an accidental drug overdose. The two portrayed friends who were often at odds with one another and were star players of the William McKinley High School football team. Most importantly, they were members of the glee club.
After news broke of Salling’s death this morning, Glee fans took to Twitter to mourn the actor, while others said they couldn’t feel sorry for the death of a pedophile. The range of reactions to his suicide was endless. Some admitted they felt bad for Salling while others shockingly applauded his death.
Fans of Glee began sharing photos and GIFs of Salling and Monteith in character, captioning the images, “Finn and Puck are back together.”
“Forever and always Puck and Finn,” another shared on Twitter.
Glee's Mark Salling has been found dead after an apparent suicide. https://t.co/ambn3EtPcs
— E! News (@enews) January 30, 2018
The fact that Glee fans were looping the deaths of Monteith and Salling together was not sitting well with other fans of the comedy. Some felt their deaths were being romanticized and should not have been associated with one another.
“So what we’re NOT gonna do is compare cory monteith and mark salling when their situations were completely different,” one fan tweeted.
Comparing Mark Salling with Corey Monteith is wrong. Not even the same situation by miles. Also rejoicing isn’t the way around it either. Despite his poor judgement and behaviour, he was still a human being and someones son. https://t.co/7IiKKxWDP5
— Kate ? (@ohsokate_) January 30, 2018
While both men passed tragically, it appeared many Twitter users could sympathize with Monteith’s addiction, where they could not say the same of Salling’s obsession. This seemed to be the root of the battle between ‘gleeks’ today as loyal Finn fans were not too thrilled that his passing was being compared to a pedophile.
When Monteith passed in 2013, most of his co-stars took to social media to mourn his loss and even dedicated an emotional episode to his life and death. So far, a majority of the Glee cast has remained silent regarding Salling’s suicide. Jane Lynch, who played Sue Sylvester, retweeted a message from Glee producer Tim Davis but did not publicly speak on the matter.
Iqbal Theba, known for his role as Principal Figgins, was the only other co-star to speak out, tweeting, “Oh Mark.”
Let me be clear. Having compassion for #MarkSalling in no way minimizes his crimes, nor does it minimize the pain and devastation of the victims of those crimes. I'm just saying stop adding to his family's pain. This was their son. If you're without sin, feel free to cast stones.
— Tim Davis (@loudmouthmuch) January 30, 2018
The conversation on Salling’s death is disturbing Twitter, whether Monteith is mentioned or not. Things are getting combative as suicide becomes a major topic of discussion, as users question if you should grieve the loss of someone guilty of heinous crimes.
