Me At The Zoo

On 23 April 2005, software engineer Jawed Karim posted an 18-second clip of himself standing in front of some elephants at the San Diego Zoo – a video which is largely unremarkable, except for the fact it was the first ever clip uploaded to the site Karim cofounded: YouTube.

The video has since received 260 million views, 13 million likes, and 11 million comments. Not bad for a clip whose only interesting feature is the innuendo about elephants having “really, really long, um… trunks.”

Further Reading:

• ‘The First YouTube Video Was Uploaded 9 Years Ago Today’ (Time Magazine, 2014): https://time.com/72892/the-first-youtube-video-was-uploaded-9-years-ago-today/ 

• ‘YouTube's History and Its Impact on the Internet’ (Interesting Engineering, 2020): https://interestingengineering.com/culture/youtubes-history-and-its-impact-on-the-internet

• ‘Me At The Zoo’ (Jawed Karim, 2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw 

This episode first premiered in 2023, for members of 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴 - where you can also DITCH THE ADS and get weekly bonus bits, unlock over 70 bits of extra content and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!

We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/retrospectors

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices