ThrowBack: The first ever YouTube video uploaded 15 years ago

Time to hit rewind.

The first ever YouTube video was uploaded on April 23, 2005 — exactly 15 years ago, today.

YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted the 18-second video, titled “Me at the zoo.” It has since garnered over 90 million views. To this day, it is the only video on Karim’s channel.

Upon clicking play, the screen fills with a young Karim’s face, his disheveled hair taking up the screen front and center.

“Alright,” Karim begins. “So here we are, in front of the elephants.”

There he is. In front of the elephants.

“The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks,” he continues. “And that’s, that’s cool.”

So. True.

Unlike many YouTube creators’ videos these days, Karim’s video does not include what’s considered the more traditional sign off: “Subscribe to my channel!” or “Like, rate, comment!”

He ends the video simply by stating: “And that’s pretty much all there is to say.”