Me at the zoo

"Me at the zoo" is a YouTube video uploaded on April 23, 2005, the first video to be uploaded to the platform. The 19-second video features YouTube's co-founder, Jawed Karim, who was 25 years old at the time, in front of two elephants at the San Diego Zoo in California, noting their long trunks. As of July 10, 2024, the video has more than 327 million views. It was recorded on Karim's camera by his high school friend, Yakov Lapitsky.

Journalists have considered "Me at the zoo" to be an example of YouTube's amateur content. Several publications have listed it as the most important video in the website's history. On several occasions, Karim has edited the video description to criticize YouTube's business actions.

Background
YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Hurley studied design at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Karim and Chen studied computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Karim stated that inspiration for the platform came from the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. He was unable to find video clips of the events online, giving him the idea to start a video sharing website.

"Me at the zoo" was uploaded on April 23, 2005. It shows Karim at the San Diego Zoo in California, with two elephants behind him. In the 19-second video, he notes the length of their trunks. The video was recorded by his high school friend, Yakov Lapitsky. In it, Karim states:

"Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants, and the cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks. And that's, that's cool. And that's pretty much all there is to say."

Reception
Multiple publications agreed that the video embodied YouTube as a whole. Business Insider ranked it the most important YouTube video of all time, stating that it is symbolic of YouTube as a whole: "[...] it doesn't need to be this fancy production; it can be approachable. The first YouTube video is something anyone could create on their own." The New York Observer also ranked it as the most important video in YouTube history, stating that it was "practically a historical artifact". BuzzFeed News listed it among the 20 most important online videos of all time. Being the first video on YouTube, it has also been described as the first YouTube vlog.

Reviewers thought that "Me at the zoo" was monumental to YouTube's history. Aaron Duplantier, in his book Authenticity and How We Fake It: Belief and Subjectivity in Reality TV, Facebook and YouTube, stated that the ordinary "everydayness" and "dry aesthetics" of "Me at the zoo" set the tone for the type of original amateur content that would become typical of YouTube, especially among YouTubers and vloggers. The Los Angeles Times explained in 2009 that "Me at the zoo" "played a pivotal role" in how media was consumed, establishing "a golden era" of short videos. Digital Trends called it a "nondescript affair" and "tongue-in-cheek" video that set a standard for future videos on YouTube. Film critic Peter Bradshaw listed the video as one of the key releases of the 2000s.

Legacy
Greg Jarboe, in his book YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, describes the video's representation of an "ordinary moment" to be "extraordinary" for its time, demonstrating YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim's vision of what YouTube would become. According to Jarboe, "Me at the zoo" showed that YouTube was not simply about trying to "capture special moments on video" but rather trying to empower YouTube users to become the "broadcasters of tomorrow". This led YouTube to become the world's most popular online video-sharing community.

Karim has repeatedly used the video's description to criticize YouTube's business actions. In response to Google requiring YouTube users to use Google+ accounts to comment on videos, he updated the description in November 2013 to say "I can't comment here anymore, since I don't want a Google+ account." The video's description was changed in November 2021 in response to YouTube's decision to remove video dislikes from public view, reading, "When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube." A few days later, the description was changed again to a longer condemnation of YouTube's decision. On December 16, 2023, the video thumbnail was changed to a MrBeast-style image of Karim with fiery eyes pointing at a background image of elephants. It was reverted to the original thumbnail two weeks later.