Memes & Nightmares: Release date, cast, plot, and everything to know

Memes & Nightmares, the dark, satirical semi-documentary on meme culture and digital fandoms turning professional basketball into a non-stop cultural phenomenon is reportedly set to premiere on Thursday, February 20, 2025, on Hulu. Starring writer-producer and social media influencer Josiah Johnson, and comedian Jamel Johnson, the movie is created by Charles Todd and Matt Mitchener, and executive-produced by NBA legend LeBron James alongside Maverick Carter.

The film is 1 hour and 21 minutes long and originally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024. Uninterrupted, Starry, Scheme Engine, and the PepsiCo Content Studio served as producers of the project. According to Variety, Memes & Nightmares has since been acquired by Andscape, the Black content studio from Disney & ESPN.

Studio Vice President Jason Aidoo shared that they were "thrilled" to incorporate the project under their banner, as "Andscape was founded at the intersection of sports and Black culture" and "sports culturalism remains our bloodline and the space we love to play in most.”

The story follows NBA Twitter (now X) King Josiah, who is renowned in the virtual world for his keen ability to capture moments from live games and turn them into viral memes. However, one such meme disappearing without a trace sets Josiah on a mission to solve a mystery that links the highest echelons of the NBA and the darkest trenches of social media.

---

Viewers can watch Memes & Nightmares on Hulu

Memes & Nightmares will be available for streaming on Hulu on February 20, 2025. The platform allows viewers to stream thousands of shows and movies, with plans starting at $9.99 per month. The basic plan has ads and provides subscribers access to Hulu's streaming library.

For an ad-free experience, viewers can upgrade the plans to $18.99 per month. Hulu also provides a special ad-supported service for students at $1.99 per month.

---

Josiah Johnson leads the cast of Memes & Nightmares

Former UCLA basketball star-turned-social media personality Josiah Johnson leads the cast of Memes and Nightmares, which is speckled with celebrity appearances from the world of sports and pop culture. Known as the ‘King of NBA Twitter,’ Josiah has previously appeared in films such as Legends of Chamberlain Heights (2016) and Jim Rome on Showtime (2012).

He is joined by comedian and NBA podcaster Jamel Johnson on the adventure to unravel the mystery behind a viral meme of his that got deleted from the internet.

Other notable names who appeared in the film include former NBA stars JR Smith, Metta World Peace, Matt Barnes, Darius Miles, and Jalen Rose, former athletes Gilbert Arenas and Ros Gold, hip hop artist Flavor Flav, sports reporter Jemele Hill, and writer-comedian The Kid Mero.

---

Exploring the plot of Memes & Nightmares

The movie opens with Josiah Johnson, a celebrity figure on NBA Twitter on account of his hot takes and viral memes. He helps the audience get acquainted with the influence of social media on the NBA community and the strong sense of community it helped build among followers over the years.

The 42-year-old also takes time to explain meme culture and internet culture in general, which sets the stage for the fictional second part of the film.

Shifting gears to a mockumentary style, the story continues with podcaster Jamel Johnson discovering a popular NBA meme has been wiped from the internet. It happened to be the last meme posted by Josiah before his retirement from NBA Twitter.

Determined to get to the bottom of the incident, Jamel enlists a begrudging Josiah to help him track down the person responsible. The two of them, accompanied by the cameraman, go on a hunt down the metaphorical alleys of the NBA in the film that has been marked as action, adventure, comedy, mystery, and sport by IMDb.