Luke Gatti, the star of one of the most talked-about viral videos of 2015, has applied for accelerated rehab in the face of legal fallout surrounding his unforgettable mac 'n cheese tirade. The special rehab program could spell community service for the former UConn student, meaning he may wind up in a soup kitchen serving up his favorite snack to others next Thanksgiving.
We all remember the ridiculous, obscenity-laced tantrum Gatti threw at the food court of his former university, when employees of the restaurant refused to allow him to purchase his favorite snack, "mac 'n cheese with bacon and jalapenos." Gatti implored the food court manager to ignore that the clearly inebriated underage student showed up with drink in hand, and to instead relinquish the coveted delectable and allow Luke to go on his merry way.
When the manager stood his ground, Gatti became increasingly belligerent, unleashed a nine-minute tirade of expletive-laden insults and ultimately physically attacked the employee. Another food court worker rushed to tackle Gatti, who was then subdued by police as he wildly complained about losing his bro-rific Adidas slide-and-sock footwear combination in the takedown. The simultaneously disturbing and hilarious YouTube video of the event went viral, with millions of viewers tuning in to witness the fracas go down, including Jimmy Kimmel, who enlisted movie star Justin Theroux to play the student in a hysterical spot-on parody featuring a fake trailer for an upcoming movie about the incident.
Gatti summarily departed UConn (whether he left by choice or due to expulsion is still unclear) and issued an apparently sincere apology video on YouTube, the same vehicle that brought him national attention for his exploits. Just when it appeared things couldn't get more bizarre, Bill MacKay, the food court worker who came to the rescue by tackling Gatti to the ground, spoke out via a long, rambling letter to the UConn campus newspaper in which he lectured both Gatti and readers on topics ranging from religion and technology to the military. Then, David Robinson, the food court worker Gatti attacked, wrote his own peculiar letter to the editor in which he pledged to reject Gatti's apology until such time as the student boarded a plane and flew to deliver his mea culpa in person in South America, where Robinson now resides.
Things then quieted down on the mac 'n cheese bro front, as observers waited for Gatti to appear in court on Nov. 23 to answer charges of breach of peace and first-degree criminal trespass resulting from the incident. Alas, this was not to be, because at his appearance, Gatti instead applied to a special Connecticut program for first-time offenders known as "accelerated rehab." Upon application to the program, the court record is subsequently sealed, and if accepted, will remain so, with Gatti then required to meet certain court-imposed conditions such as counseling and/or community service. That means, come next Thanksgiving, in the ultimate irony, Luke may find himself on the other side of the food counter — in a soup kitchen, dishing out turkey, stuffing and his favorite bacon and jalapeno-laced mac 'n cheese side dish to some "bros" and "bro-ettes" less fortunate than him.
