I pranked Qatar

Sup nerds,

I pulled a viral prank on Qatar last week.

Let me tell you how it went down.

It’s Thursday.

Just a normal day.

I wake up and start working on my meme software: fixing bugs, improving meme creation, checking out new AI models, yada, yada, yada.

Then at 10 am, I get a text from my friend and mentor David Keyes saying he’s gonna be in town and asking if I want to prank the Qatari Consulate.

Uhhhhhh, hell yeah.

Fuck Qatar. They bribe every influencer, creator, anyone in between to praise Hamas and spread conspiracy theories about Israel.

When’s the prank???

2 PM.

Shit, ok I’m in, let’s do this.

I chug a Red Bull. Then it’s time to roll.

If you remember my interview with David Keyes, you’ll know he rose to internet fame by pranking dictators across the world from NYC to Davos and then was pulled in to work as spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

We’ve filmed a bunch of content together from the podcast to a viral funeral for legacy media, but I’d never gotten the chance to jump in one of these dictator pranks. So I booked it over to the east side to film. I get there early, grab some coffee across the street and write some shitposts to kill time.

Then David arrives and we hit the consulate and film:

It turns out to be an absolute banger.

Reminder: You just need an iPhone and a banger idea.

Wanna make people laugh?

You don’t need a fancy movie camera and a $5,000 set.

Usually I’m the one in front of the camera, but my camera guy Alex was out of town.

Do I say no?

Obviously not.

I just filmed on my iPhone along with a DIJ mic (highly recommend, $300 and perfect for quick filming for any creator or marketer) and then edited up on Veed ($30). That’s the same setup I used for all my street interviews. Quick and easy.

It’s funny, 99% of videographers have this annoying art-school filmmaker mindset where they want to gate-keep making videos and make everything feel so fancy but I truly believe anyone can make a fun video. You don’t need a fancy lens or fancy video editing software or some crazy knowledge of lighting and sets. The equipment doesn’t make the video. You just need an iPhone and a banger idea.

That’s also literally what happened in last week’s episode of Silly Valley. I was out of town on my 1-year-anniversary with my wife and she filmed the whole thing. She was super nervous about it (the angles and lighting etc). I was like “Babe, you’ve watched tv, you’ve watched movies, anyone can do it. Anyone can be a director. Just tell me where to go and what you think looks good.” And the episode turned out great.

Stop doubting yourself.

If you’re alive right now, you’ve watched enough YouTube and TV and movies to have some idea of what it should look like.

Grab your iPhone and trust your gut.

Then go make some bangers.

Memes of the Week

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Founder of Memelord Technologies and Creator of Silly Valley Ventures