In the two decades since the first YouTube video was uploaded, the platform has evolved from a repository of funny home videos, live performances and cat memes to a platform that’s built multimillion-dollar empires, influenced real-life trends and changed how we consume politics. Online culture reporter Samantha Edwards and screens reporter J. Kelly Nestruck compile the top 20 YouTube videos that defined the platform’s first 20 years.
April 23, 2005: Me at the zoo, by jawed
YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploads the first video to YouTube, a grainy 19-second clip of him standing near the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. Karim coined YouTube’s motto “Broadcast Yourself” and his first upload became emblematic of one of the platform’s first core genres: unfiltered home videos.
Dec. 17, 2005: Lazy Sunday, by Saturday Night Live
A bootleg of this SNL musical short starring Andy Samberg is uploaded – and becomes, by some measures, the site’s first viral video, helping traffic to the site jump by 87 per cent.
April 23, 2007: ″Chocolate Rain” Original Song, by Tay Zonday
After first gaining traction on the online message board 4chan, Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” exploded on YouTube. The video spurred hundreds of covers, parodies and spoofs – and landed Zonday a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
June 7, 2007: Keyboard Cat! – THE ORIGINAL!, by Keyboard Cat!
One of the first cat memes that would dominate internet humour from the mid- to late-aughts, the keyboard cat – real name, Fatso – was filmed by Charlie Schmidt in 1984 and uploaded in 2007.
April 1, 2008, Never Gonna Give You Up, by Rick Astley
A video pranking practice known as “rickrolling” that originally was born on 4chan reaches a new level as YouTube itself redirects all links on its front page to the 1987 Rick Astley music video. The gag has never given up the ghost: An upload of the video dated Oct. 25, 2009, has more than 1.6 billion views.
Jan. 31, 2009, David After Dentist, by booba1234
In an anesthesia-induced stupor, seven-year-old David DeVore ponders philosophical questions, such as “Is this real life?” and “Is this going to be forever?” while in the backseat of his dad’s car. The clip immediately garnered millions of views and became an early example of how YouTube virality could be monetized. On top of the ad revenue paid out by YouTube, there was “David after Dentist” merch, a Beyoncé Super Bowl spot and an NFT, which sold for US$13,500 in 2021.
Dec. 9, 2010: How to Tie a Side Turla Bhangra Pagh (Turban), by Lilly Singh
In 2008, at the age of 22, Scarborough, Ont.’s Lilly Singh starts uploading videos under the pseudonym IISuperwomanII, and chooses to pursue a career on YouTube over graduate school; within a decade, she became one of its highest-earning creators worldwide. This oldest extant video of hers is an example of how YouTube helped knock over the screen gatekeepers: In 2019, Singh became the first person of Indian descent to host a late-night talk show in the U.S.
Feb. 19, 2010: Justin Bieber – Baby ft. Ludacris, by Justin Bieber
In 2009, a video of the then-preteen pop singer from Stratford, Ont., was discovered by music executive Scooter Braun. In 2010, Justin Bieber’s Baby featuring Ludacris went megaviral. Baby spent two years as YouTube’s most-viewed video of all time – and still sits at spot 38 with more than 3.3 billion views.
Feb. 10, 2011: Rebecca Black – Friday, by rebecca
In the 2010s, Rebecca Black emerged as a prime example of how the internet can collectively unite to make someone a punchline – in this case, a 13-year-old girl. The video for her song Friday was the most-watched video of 2011, but also the most-disliked song on the platform up until that point. Black ended up parlaying early internet fame into a legitimate music career: she performs with Katy Perry in Toronto this August.
July 15, 2012: PSY – GANGNAM STYLE M/V, by officialpsy
That the music video that dethroned Bieber’s Baby was for a South Korean song about nouveau riche posturing in a high-end neighbourhood of Seoul was just one of many signs of the rising power of K-pop in world culture. It remains the ninth most-watched YouTube video of all time.
May 13, 2013: Letterkenny Problems Ep. 1, by LetterkennyProblems
This video was the internet’s introduction to a couple of fast-and-dirty-talking good old boys named Wayne (Jared Keeso) and Daryl (Nathan Dales) from a fictional small town of 5,000 in midwestern Ontario. Keeso ended up adapting and expanding the subsequent web series into Letterkenny, the first original series commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave.
Nov. 17, 2013: Yoga For Complete Beginners – 20 Minute Home Yoga Workout!, by Yoga With Adriene
Adriene Mishler started making yoga videos in 2012, becoming one of the platform’s most popular fitness influencers. Mishler has developed a cult-like online following, which grew exponentially during the pandemic.
April 13, 2016: HUGE EGGS Surprise Toys Challenge with Inflatable water slide, by Ryan’s World
Ryan Kaji started unboxing and reviewing toys in 2011 when he was only three years old, and became one of the world’s most famous – and richest – kidfluencers. This video, in which Ryan opens Paw Patrol and Disney Cars toys, is his most popular to date, with two billion views.
June 17, 2016: Baby Shark Dance, by Pinkfong
The South Korean entertainment company PinkFog cornered the monetized market with this catchy (some say demonic) ditty accompanied by kitschy animation and dance video – the first to reach 15 billion views on YouTube earlier this year.
Jan. 8, 2017: I counted to 100,000!, by MrBeast
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is the now biggest YouTuber in the world, with 385 million subscribers. In his first viral hit, he counted to 100,000 over the course of 40 hours. MrBeast’s trademark editing style – overly stimulating with ultrafast-paced cuts and transitions – has become the norm on YouTube.
Feb. 25, 2017: lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to, by LoFi Girl
In the mid-2010s, a growing number of channels started live streaming 24-hour lo-fi music, ideal to play in the background while studying. The most popular channel was ChilledCow’s, whose cover art is a looping gif of a girl with big headphones studying at a desk.
Jan. 2, 2018: So Sorry, by Logan Paul
Logan Paul posted an apology for earlier uploading a video that showed a Japanese man who had died by suicide in a forest. (Paul deleted that video). He’s since solidified himself as a key figure in the manosphere.
Nov. 7, 2018: In Defense of T-Series, by JusReign
Canadian YouTuber Jus Reign – a.k.a. Guelph, Ont.’s Jasmeet Raina – releases a video in defence of T-Series, an Indian music label and movie studio that was in a YouTube rivalry with the controversial gamer PewDiePie … and later that year mysteriously disappears. He resurfaces in 2024 with Late Bloomer on Crave – a dramedy inspired by life as a YouTube creator.
April 8, 2020: Justin Trudeau Sings “Speaking Moistly,” by anonymotif
The musical comedy phenomenon of remixing and processing news footage into song dates back to the first decade of YouTube. So when a YouTube user composed this song out of a particularly weird turn of phrase in one of prime minister Justin Trudeau’s COVID-19 briefings outside Rideau Cottage in 2020, it was a comforting, nostalgic bit of entertainment for that terrifying time.
Oct. 25, 2024: Joe Rogan Experience #2219 – Donald Trump, by PowerfulJRE
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made a detour to record a nearly three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan. YouTubers such as Rogan, as well as Theo Von and Logan Paul, were viewed as critical for Trump’s 2024 victory.
Editor’s note: (April 17, 2024): An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that, in 2010, a YouTube employee had claimed 3 per cent of all traffic to the video site was owing to Biebermania. In fact, it was a Twitter employee who tweeted that year: “At any moment, Justin Bieber uses 3% of our infrastructure." The incorrect statement has been removed.
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