There’s an old saying that if you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one.
Memes & Nightmares, a satirical dive into a niche audience called “NBA Twitter” on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, succeeds at its mission. The film features X personalities, NBA reporters, and former NBA players in a film about the power of digital storytelling, made specifically for NBA Twitter but broadened to include any diehard fan of the NBA.
The mockumentary follows Josiah Johnson, the “king” of NBA Twitter, and Jamel Johnson, no relation, for a “buddy cop” investigative premise that is as silly as it is hilarious: what would happen if one of the most popular memes from NBA Twitter, aptly named “J.R. Smith squints,” disappeared from the internet?
Andscape spoke with Charles Todd, director, and Matt Mitchener, co-director and writer, about what inspired the idea, their favorite NBA Twitter memes, and why J.R. Smith’s inclusion is important to the overall message.
Charles Todd (left) and Matt Mitchener (right) attend the Memes & Nightmares premiere during the 2024 Tribeca Festival at SVA Theater on June 12, 2024, in New York City.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival
Todd said the movie had been in the “nascent stage” for a long time. PepsiCo Content Studio, an in-house studio for PepsiCo brands, Starry, the official soft drink of the NBA in America, and Uninterrupted, a storytelling brand founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, wanted to create something that reflected the culture of NBA fandom.
“At that point in time, the idea was to do a documentary,” Todd said. An ordinary documentary, however, wouldn’t do. Todd heard the pitch and wanted to “reinvent what’s been seen.” The trio of companies were receptive to the idea but had more questions.
Mitchener said a mockumentary made the most sense.
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“[We wanted] sort of a ‘true crime,’ was about as serious as could be, which is sort of the joke of it since it’s the least serious thing in the world,” Mitchener said. “We thought the mystery was an engaging thing that can kind of bring in people that aren’t, maybe just NBA Twitter heads.”
Once they set the foundation, the next was finding people from NBA Twitter to put in the movie.
Several personalities, reporters, and former NBA players appear in Memes & Nightmares, including Flavor Flav, The Kid Mero, Jemele Hill, Matt Barnes, Josiah Johnson, J.R. Smith, and more.
The film bouncing around to so many different people was a thematic fit.
“It’s the premise of a mystery of ‘who did it’ that also lends itself to talking to different people, investigating different people,” Mitchener said. Having so many well-known personalities playing outsized versions of themselves was also the plan for both directors. “I think it made it much more interesting than sitting down to like, explain how a meme works,” Mitchener said.
Josiah Johnson’s reflection on the J.R. Smith meme.
YouTube/Hulu
Todd and Mitchener co-wrote Memes & Nightmares, but many scenes relied on the actors’ chemistry to arrive at the appropriate bookends. An early film highlight is an interrogation in which Josiah and Jamel accuse The Kid Mero of stealing the meme.
“It’s likely that around 90% of what laughed at in the scene was just Mero, Josiah, and Jamel being themselves,” Mitchener said. “It’s a lot of them just doing their thing, you know, riffing and playing.”
The trust Todd and Mitchener extended to the actors mimics the trust they’ve built with one another. They met around 2012, publishing video work for Jay-Z’s “Life and Times” website for years. From there, Todd and Mitchener labored on bigger and better projects before eventually arriving at scripted storytelling.
“We feel good about our partnership now because of ten-plus years of banging our heads against the wall and trying to figure it out,” Todd said. “That was not without a lot of trial and error.”
Josiah Johnson and Jamel Johnson in Memes & Nightmares.
Hulu
While most of Memes & Nightmares is a hilarious look at NBA fandom, it does make a point to show one of the darker sides of going viral. J.R. Smith joins the movie with clubs under the idea he’d be discussing something golf-related. The mood suddenly shifts when he realizes they’re looking for a deleted meme of him.
“You want to talk about this meme s—, I got places to be,” Smith said in the movie. “Real quick, let’s get it over with.” In the movie, Josiah explains that the Smith meme “embodies what this community is all about” but also admits it created a narrative that the former NBA star and current HBCU student isn’t intelligent.
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Smith says the memes are weird because “it’s kind of funny but it’s also like damn, I’m the butt of the joke again. It doesn’t even have to be something accurate or true.” Andscape asked both directors about tone change and whether it was scripted the way it played out on screen.
“His response is 100% documentary,” Todd said. Todd purposely wanted the film to change tonally and reinforce the message that just because things are a joke online doesn’t mean they can’t bleed into real life. He and Mitchener used Smith’s feature to show people what it’s like for the person at the expense of everyone’s humor.
Josiah Johnson in Memes & Nightmares.
Hulu
Mitchener said it was also an opportunity to “open up the conversation and get real for a bit.” He wanted people to consider, “What’s [the difference between]real life and online? What is fandom and what is harassment?”
The directors said feedback on the movie has been positive. They set out to make a movie about a niche community and that community appreciates their work. “Paul Wall tweeted that he thought the movie was incredible,” Todd said. “It was like four fire emojis.”
We wanted to know if either director had a favorite sports meme of their own.
“Russell Westbrook sneaking popcorn on the side, looking suspicious,” Todd said, “I feel like I inhabit that energy.”
And for Mitchener?
“Alonzo Mourning.”
Liner Notes
‘Memes & Nightmares,’ acquired by Andscape, is now streaming on Hulu.
Garfield Hylton is a professional journalist, ghostwriter and digital storyteller. When he’s not writing essays, he’s in the gym working on his jumpshot so the young boys don’t run him off the court.
