Me at the zoo
You might remember it as Jawed Karim elephants
Viral classics3 of 40
2005·Early YouTube·nostalgic·Uploaded by jawed
The first video uploaded to YouTube; an archive of internet video without it is incomplete by definition.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- Jawed Karim elephants
- First known
- 2005
- Began as
- A video upload
- Uploaded by
- jawed
- Format
- Video
- Made by
- Jawed Karim, a co-founder of YouTube, who appears in it and uploaded it
- Recorded
- At San Diego Zoo, filmed by his school friend Yakov Lapitsky
- What it said
- “...they have really, really, really long, um, trunks”, and then “that’s pretty much all there is to say”
- Origin
- Likely original upload
- Available
- Playable from the source
What this wasThe story
Jawed Karim stands in front of the elephant enclosure at San Diego Zoo and says, in nineteen seconds, that the interesting thing about elephants is that they have really long trunks, and that this is cool. His school friend Yakov Lapitsky is holding the camera.
Karim has repeatedly edited the video’s description to argue with YouTube’s own decisions, over the Google+ sign-in requirement and again over the removal of dislike counts. The Victoria and Albert Museum acquired it in February 2026.
Why it matteredWhat changed
It is the first video uploaded to YouTube, and it is nineteen seconds of a man saying that elephants have long trunks. Everything the platform became starts from a clip that makes no attempt to be anything.
TimelineIn order
- Posted
Jawed Karim uploads the video at 8:31 in the evening, Pacific time. It is the first upload to the site.1
- Later
Karim edits the video’s description to protest YouTube’s new requirement of a Google+ account to comment.1
- Later
He edits it again to criticise the removal of public dislike counts, ending “Try again, YouTube.”1
- Later
The video briefly carries a thumbnail in the style of MrBeast. It is reverted two weeks later.1
- Mainstream
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London acquires the video together with a reconstruction of the early YouTube page it sat on.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asJawed Karim filmed it himself.
ActuallyHe is the person in front of the elephants. The camera was held by Yakov Lapitsky.1
LegacyWhat it left behind
- The video’s description has become the place its uploader comments on YouTube itself: one of the site’s founders using its first upload as a noticeboard.1
- A comment left on it by San Diego Zoo in 2020 is the most-liked comment on the platform.1
More from hereIn this collection
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
Where it came fromWhat we know
High-confidence original source.
Earliest known source: YouTube
Created by Jawed Karim. Originally uploaded by jawed. Established by research, not by who posted the copy shown here.
- When
- 24 April 2005 on YouTube.
More from 2005You were there
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things