YouTube: Me At the Zoo clip
Year First Appeared
2005
Creator
Jawed Karim, Yakov Lapitsky
Me at the zoo is the first video ever uploaded to YouTube, a 19‑second clip posted by co‑founder Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005, showing him at the San Diego Zoo briefly commenting on the elephants’ long trunks.
Importance in Internet Culture
By foregrounding an ordinary, user-shot clip, it set the tone for YouTube's amateur, creator-led culture and helped usher in a share-all mode of life online that reshaped media consumption and celebrity.
Interesting Fact
The clip was filmed by Karim's high-school friend Yakov Lapitsky. Years later, Karim repeatedly edited the video's description to protest platform decisions, most notably in 2021, when he condemned YouTube's removal of public dislike counts.