The Jalal brothers - Max, 20 and Arman, 18 - arrived in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday charged with public nuisance, possessing a prohibited weapon and behaving in an offensive manner in a public place.

One of them asked the police prosecutor for a selfie. He was firmly refused. "That's OK", said the Jalal – he'd just photoshop him in later anyway.

The charges stemmed from a video made by the brothers, in which a man in stereotypically-Arab dress takes aim at another man and his young daughter with an AK47. The man flees, leaving his daughter behind.

But the court heard the man was one of the brothers and young girl a relative. And the gun? Well, that was actually a gold hookah pipe. And the whole thing was filmed in controlled conditions with no members of the public present.

Two of the charges were dropped on Friday by police, just before sentencing.

Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg ordered them to make a public apology in relation to the third charge of behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and placed them on a diversion program that required they be of good behaviour for six months, the pair thereby avoided criminal convictions.

"In these circumstances the sincerity of an apology is often difficult to gauge - but I would certainly not be using Johnny Depp as an example," he said.

Then, following an application from media, he took the unprecedented step of allowing a film crew into court to film the whole thing. Would the uniformed, dignified-looking police prosecutor like to be in the frame when the apology was read out? Few shakes of the head could have been more emphatic.

"Your honour I am sorry for any fear or anxiety caused in the community. It's obviously in the past (last) that we have not made the best of decisions," Arman said in the apology.

"We plan on pursuing a career in entertainment with better choices and more responsibility".

Magistrate Rozencwajg asked the Jalals to stand as he sentenced them.

"The video for the drive-by shooting prank...has attracted significant extensive public criticism and broad media attention considering the high security environment that Australian is operating in," he told them.

"It's reasonable to determine that these pranks have caused... angst, fear and division among the public.

"If a member of society was casually walking along and witnessed the events...it could understandably give rise to a threatening experience. Fear is contagious, even if it is play-acted. Fortuitously, that did not occur."

Mr Rozencwajg recognised the video was an act of satire but said there was a line between legitimate satire and unacceptable behaviour.

"I would hate to think that in Australia we would ever reach such a state that there is no room for legitimate comment through satire. This adds to the debate. However there is a line that needs to be respected. Where such comment is expressed in a manner that... gives rise to increased division in society, that line is crossed," he said.

The magistrate said "these men obviously have a successful future ahead of them".