The internet is the new Hollywood

Sup memelords,

I was in talks for a TV show earlier this year with major networks about memes.

I had an academy award winning producer signed on. Budget and season planned. Locations and timing selected. It was finally happening.

And then the question came:

“Have you tweeted anything potentially offensive?”

I laughed. Bro.

“Uh yeah, obviously. Did you not do your research??? That’s kinda my thing. I have hit pieces in Rolling Stone on me for my memes.”

“Ok, well… [redacted network] isn’t going to want to risk this. We can’t move forward.”

It’s what I was afraid of.

I was officially too cancellable for Hollywood (or at least this network).

So I did what any memelord with Hollywood dreams and $3M in the bank would do: rent out an NYC movie theater this April Fools to play Instagram Reels.

Why?

Because The Internet is the New Hollywood.

You’re invited (yes, it’s real).

Zuck’s Head of Comms tagged @Zuck in the comments on my Instagram

And we got featured in The Publish Press next to “real Hollywood” movies (it’s Theo Von a comedian who blew up on the internet.

Comedy creator? Don’t you mean memelord????

Anyways, it all proves my point.

The internet is the new Hollywood.

This was finally the tipping point, my joker moment, you could say.

You won’t let me in Hollywood, I’ll rent your fucking theaters to play Instagram Reels.

I grew up dreaming of working in Hollywood. All good. I’m gonna be filming the show this summer for the new Hollywood (the internet) anyways.

I’m writing this post from my view overlooking the blue pacific ocean on the 30th floor of a 3-bedroom 3-bath apartment in Miami.

I don’t need to be on a set slaving away 12 hours/day or sucking a director’s dick (metaphorically or literally because hey it’s Hollywood, right).

I just need some wifi.

We’ve got millions of followers across our pages. I’ve got 7 employees on 4 different continents. We get more views than half the TV shows out today on our memes.

Meanwhile, traditional Hollywood is crumbling.

“There’s not enough work,” writes The Hollywood Reporter. “Hollywood has yet to recover the jobs in film and television production that were lost when strikes by writers and actors brought production to a halt in 2023,” writes the NYT.

Meanwhile the creator economy is fucking booming everyday.

Why do you think every actor and comedian has a podcast from Conan O’Brian to Jason Bateman?? Because the internet is the new hollywood.

As a movie nut and Hollwood wanna be, this is all a complex feeling I’m still trying to understand. I think in memes and metaphors, so a few comparisons below.

• When I was 15, I wrote in my notes app that I wanted to be on Forbes 30 Under 30. I could easily get on it now. But the best thing Forbes 30 Under 30 is known for is crime nowadays. The institution has fallen.

• When I was 17, I went to University of Michigan Ross School of Business, the best undergrad biz schools in the country. Now I’m 28 and my wife and I both agree when we have kids, we’re not sending them to college.

• When I was 18 at University of Michigan, I worked for the New York Times as a campus representative selling subscriptions to the paper on-campus and on the internet. I was the #1 campus rep in the country. Nowadays, you couldn’t pay me enough to even subscribe to The New York Times, the most corrupt paper on earth.

• When I was 25, I wrote the book “Memes Make Millions” and couldn’t get a single published to pick it up. Meanwhile I raised $3M to make memes.

• Last year alone, I was in Rolling Stone, The New York Post, Politico, Forbes, and on the front page of Inc labeled “The Gen Z Building The Canva for Memes.” After all of it, I wrote a piece called “Front Page, Who Cares?”.

What all of this has in common: The efficiency of the internet has shown the inefficiencies in all our major institutions.

From legacy media to universities to cities to Hollywood itself, the internet showed us how inefficient and rotted the organizations themselves were.

The internet is the new Hollywood (there’s not enough jobs in LA). The internet is also the new New York (you can do finance anywhere). And it’s also the new Silicon Valley (why you don’t need to move to SF anymore).

None of the old shit fucking matters.

All that matters is the internet.

So that is why I have this scar.

Like a scar, the internet will survive forever.

I’ll be filming the first episode myself this summer in France to post on the new Hollywood (the internet).

And who knows what’ll happen?

Maybe like falling in love with a toxic ex, I’ll end up in Hollywood anyways.

Thanks for reading memelords.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Founder of Memelord.com