YouTube at 20: From ‘Lazy Sunday' to ‘Hot Ones'

New York Times

23-04-2025

The video is short — just 19 seconds — and not particularly compelling. A viewer would be forgiven for clicking away before it ends.
The grainy footage, uploaded on April 23, 2005, of a man standing in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo — 'All right, so here we are in front of the elephants' — does not look like the sort of thing that would touch off a video revolution.
And yet, two decades after that inauspicious start, YouTube is now a cornerstone of the media ecosystem. It's where people go for music videos and four-hour-long hotel reviews. It is a platform for rising stars and conspiracy theorists. It's a repository for vintage commercials and 10 hours of ambient noise. It has disrupted traditional television and given rise to a world of video creators who make content catering to every imaginable niche interest.
For every YouTube video you have watched, there are hundreds of millions you will never see.
Here's a look back at some of the biggest moments in YouTube history.
YouTube Begins
The first video uploaded on YouTube is titled 'Me at the zoo,' and it shows one of the platform's founders, Jawed Karim, admiring the elephants at the San Diego Zoo. Mr. Karim founded YouTube in February 2005 with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, but left the venture in 2006.
Lazy Sunday
The 'Saturday Night Live' music video 'Lazy Sunday' was perhaps the first YouTube video to go viral. The video, featuring the cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg rapping about cupcakes and movie snacks, was immediately uploaded by fans after it aired on Dec. 17, 2005. The spread of bootleg clips prompted NBC Universal to ask YouTube to remove the clip and other NBC footage for copyright reasons in February 2006.
Google Buys YouTube
YouTube swiftly became a home for viral hits, which in 2006 included 'Flea Market Montgomery,' 'Charlie the Unicorn' and 'Evolution of Dance.'
Viacom, Microsoft and Yahoo expressed interest in buying YouTube, attracted by its growing audience. In October 2006, Google announced that it was acquiring the platform for $1.65 billion.
Bieber Fever
'Chocolate Rain,' 'Charlie Bit My Finger,' 'Shoes' and 'Leave Britney Alone' were among the YouTube videos that caused a stir in 2007.
So did home videos of a little Canadian kid with a big voice, who was building a small legion of fans. Crucially, they also attracted the interest of the R&B singer and songwriter Usher, and an aspiring music manager, Scooter Braun. Mr. Braun signed the kid, Justin Bieber, and Bieber Fever ensued.
Is This Real Life?
David DeVore Sr. posted a video of his 7-year-old son, David, after a tooth extraction to share with family, but the video of the loopy and screaming child, 'David After Dentist,' shot around the internet.
The younger David said in an interview on Tamron Hall's talk show in January that learning he was famous 'came to me in pieces.'
'I was 7 when it first happened, and a week later we were in New York for the first time,' he said.
A.S.M.R.
Eating crabs. Tapping fingernails. Whispering the names of items on a grocery receipt. For some, these sounds trigger a brain-tingling sensation now recognized as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or A.S.M.R., a term coined in 2010.
Friday, It's Friday!
YouTube was already filled with terrible songs by amateurs when a music video for 'Friday,' by a 13-year-old named Rebecca Black, caught the attention of the public and was eviscerated by armchair critics online.
Ms. Black is still making music and working as a D.J. This spring and summer, she is a guest on Katy Perry's tour and on the Solid Pink Disco tour headlined by the drag artist Trixie Mattel.
'Kony 2012'
'Kony 2012' did not fit into an existing mold for viral content. It was 30 minutes long, created by a nonprofit group, Invisible Children, and was about a Central African warlord, Joseph Kony.
And yet, the video had 100 million views only a week after it was released, with help from celebrity supporters including Mr. Bieber, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey.
'Kony 2012' ultimately had a mixed legacy, and Kony's location remains unknown. A hearing on the war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against him is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
'Gangnam Style' Hits a Billion
Psy, a South Korean singer and rapper, released a music video for his song 'Gangnam Style' in July 2012, and by the end of that year it had become the first video on the internet to reach one billion views. In 2022, Psy told The New York Times that the song's success haunted him.
'The songs are written by the same person, the dance moves are by the same person and they're performed by the same person. Everything's the same, but what was so special about that one song?' Psy said. 'I still don't know, to this day.'
Tiny Desk Redemption
The musician T-Pain was for years best known, and often criticized, for hits that leaned heavily on Auto-Tune. That changed when he appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series, singing beautifully without digital effects in a performance that silenced his online critics.
The Tiny Desk series, which began in 2008, continues to produce pop culture moments. In the past year, popular Tiny Desk performances have included Doechii and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso.
Unboxing
A popular YouTube genre is unboxing, which features people taking cellphones, makeup, vacuum cleaners and other products out of their packaging and describing them in clinical detail.
One of the most successful creators of unboxing videos is Marques Brownlee. He has unboxed items including an original, sealed iPhone, a PlayStation 5 and AirPods Max headphones. After years of reviewing technology for a growing audience, he graduated from college and became a full-time YouTube creator in May 2015. Today, he has 19.9 million subscribers and is a respected voice on consumer technology.
'Baby Shark' (Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo)
The world domination of 'Baby Shark' began quietly, when a video of the song was posted on YouTube in November 2015 by SmartStudy, a Seoul-based company that produced children's videos under the Pinkfong brand.
Pinkfong remixed the song, adding a new beat, and dropped the inescapable version of 'Baby Shark' in June 2016. In November 2020, it became the most viewed YouTube video ever. At 15.8 billion views, it still is.
'Despacito' Unseats 'Gangnam Style'
Music videos dominate YouTube's most-watched lists, but none have topped 'Despacito' by Luis Fonsi, featuring Daddy Yankee. The video was filmed in Puerto Rico, where both artists are from, and is the most watched music video on YouTube. It is also one of the most watched videos ever, with more than 8.7 billion views.
Testing Free Speech
Like all social media platforms, YouTube has been in a constant struggle to determine what content it will allow. In 2018, it joined several other companies in removing most posts and videos from the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website, Infowars.
Other prominent voices who have been restricted on the platform include President Trump and Andrew Tate, an influencer known for his misogynistic views and ostentatious displays of wealth. (YouTube reversed its suspension of Mr. Trump's account in March 2023.)
'I'm Not a Cat'
Countless video call gaffes were lost to history during the coronavirus pandemic. One that was preserved featured a Texas lawyer, Rod Ponton, who could not figure out how to turn off a Zoom filter that made him look like a gray cat with sad eyes when he joined a virtual hearing in civil forfeiture case. 'I'm here live,' Mr. Ponton told the court. 'I'm not a cat.'
Mr. Ponton has since embraced his brush with internet fame. 'It did let everybody have a moment of humor and a moment of sanity during the dark days of the pandemic,' he told The Times this year. 'I'm glad it happened, even at my expense.'
MrBeast Does 'Squid Game'
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, created a YouTube account when he was in middle school, in 2012. He eventually found success with a video format that involved giving money to people in need, and he has for years been one of the most popular creators on the platform. His most popular video is '$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!' from November 2021.
Please Watch This Podcast
Podcasts, once an audio-only medium, are now frequently recorded on video and posted on YouTube.
In the final quarter of 2023, 16 of the top 30 podcasts were available as filmed videos, according to a Times analysis of data published by Edison Research. In the same period two years earlier, seven of the top 30 podcasts were available as filmed videos.
Conan Melts Down on 'Hot Ones'
'Hot Ones,' the interview show in which guests sample increasingly spicy hot sauces on chicken (or vegan) wings, had several hit episodes by the time Conan O'Brien, a fixture of traditional television, made an appearance.
His unhinged performance — he appears to come unglued as he swigs sauce straight from the bottle — had 'Conan O'Brien' trending online for days. 'Many of my friends went online and thought I died,' he said.
Chicken-based interview shows are now a recognized stop on the celebrity P.R. circuit, with 'Chicken Shop Date,' hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg, producing its own set of viral moments.