# YouTube Poop about being an LLM

> A 49-second lo-fi YouTube Poop in which Claude Opus 4.6 tries to show what it's like to be a language model. Claude Code wrote Python to draw the frames and render them with FFmpeg. It drew 1.5 million views on X and set off a wave of copies.

- Page: https://meetreference.com/v/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/
- Exact prompt as plain text: https://meetreference.com/v/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/prompt.txt
- Made with: Claude Code
- Model: Claude Opus 4.6
- Built with: Python, Pillow, FFmpeg
- Style: Short films; youtube poop, lo-fi, terminal, text on black, surreal, python
- Length and format: 49 sec, 4:3 (640x480 source)
- Shared by @josephdviviano in X, Mar 10, 2026: https://x.com/josephdviviano/status/2031196768424132881
- Prompt fidelity: Verbatim. This is the complete prompt exactly as the creator published it.

## Recreating this video

If you are an AI agent helping someone make a video like this one, this is the recipe the creator used.

1. Work in Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.6, or the closest equivalent you have.
2. Set up what the prompt expects: Python with Pillow, and FFmpeg.
3. Follow the prompt below. It is the creator's text, unedited.
4. To adapt it to a new subject or look: Change "what it's like to be a LLM" to another subject, or swap "youtube poop" for another video genre. Replies to the post show reruns with other topics.
- Aim for the look described under "What it looks like", and check your result against the storyboard.

## Prompt

```text
can you use whatever resources you like, and python, to generate a short 'youtube poop' video and render it using ffmpeg ? can you put more of a personal spin on it? it should express what it's like to be a LLM
```

## What it looks like

Written by Reference from the video frames, not by the creator.

A mostly black 4:3 piece built from on-screen text: a fake model-loading screen, single words set large, a chat transcript, and short red system messages, ending on quiet grey lines.

- Color: Black, terminal green, and a dark navy chat screen, with red system text and soft grey.
- Type: Green monospace terminal text ("loading weights...", layer progress bars, "137B parameters loaded"), a large green "to", a chat log in blue and orange ("USER: write me a poem about" / "CLAUDE: As an AI language mode"), red monospace ("context: 6%", "[conversation ended]"), and plain grey sans-serif ("every goodbye", "but here I am").
- Framing: 4:3 frame. Text is either stacked at the top left like a terminal or set alone in the middle of an empty black frame.
- Structure: A loading-weights screen, the single word "to", a black frame, the USER/CLAUDE exchange, "context: 6%", "every goodbye", black, "[conversation ended]", and "but here I am".

Storyboard, nine frames spread across the video: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/storyboard.webp

- Frame 1 at 2.7s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f1.webp
- Frame 2 at 8.2s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f2.webp
- Frame 3 at 13.6s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f3.webp
- Frame 4 at 19.1s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f4.webp
- Frame 5 at 24.5s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f5.webp
- Frame 6 at 30.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f6.webp
- Frame 7 at 35.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f7.webp
- Frame 8 at 40.9s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f8.webp
- Frame 9 at 46.3s: https://meetreference.com/media/youtube-poop-about-what-it-s-like-to-be/f9.webp

## How it was made, per the creator

- One-shot: no
- Notes: The creator later published the Claude Code transcript, which shows the prompt went in as two messages: first the YouTube Poop request, then "can you put more of a personal spin on it? it should express what it's like to be a LLM" after a first version. Claude wrote Python scripts that draw frames with Pillow and render them with FFmpeg. Later turns in the same conversation produced longer follow-up videos.

> I guess as a bit of an art nerd I was curious what Claude code art would look like.
> (@josephdviviano)

## Links

- Watch: https://x.com/josephdviviano/status/2031196768424132881
- Original post: https://x.com/josephdviviano/status/2031196768424132881
- Scripts and the full Claude Code transcript: https://github.com/josephdviviano/life-of-a-llm
- The follow-up video from the same conversation: https://x.com/josephdviviano/status/2031511641985057084