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Me at the zoo

You might remember it as Jawed Karim elephants

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2005·Early YouTube·nostalgic·Uploaded by jawed

The first video uploaded to YouTube: nineteen seconds of the co-founder Jawed Karim in front of the elephants at San Diego Zoo.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Jawed Karim elephants
First known
2005
Began as
A video upload
Uploaded by
jawed
Format
Video
Era
Early YouTube
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

  1. Posted

    Jawed Karim uploads the video at 8:31 in the evening, Pacific time. It is the first upload to the site.1

  2. Later

    Karim edits the video’s description to protest YouTube’s new requirement of a Google+ account to comment.1

  3. Later

    He edits it again to criticise the removal of public dislike counts, ending “Try again, YouTube.”1

  4. Later

    The video briefly carries a thumbnail in the style of MrBeast. It is reverted two weeks later.1

  5. 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

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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.

View original on YouTube

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

  1. Wikipedia — Me at the zoo

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

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