YouTube is an American online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen, three former employees of PayPal. It is the second-most-visited website. Most content is generated by individuals, including collaborations between YouTubers and corporate sponsors. Established media, news, and entertainment corporations have also created and expanded their visibility on YouTube channels to reach bigger audiences. In January 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of 15 minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical US citizen watching television. In 2017, viewers on average watched YouTube on mobile devices for more than an hour every day.
YouTube was created on February 14, 2005, with the first video being published on April 23, 2005, with Me at the zoo. , videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and , there were approximately 14.8billion videos in total. According to Amanda Holpuch of The New York Times, "YouTube is now a cornerstone of the media ecosystem." Content on the platform ranges from music videos, long-form documentary-style video essays, and conspiracy theory videos. Holpuch goes on to say "It has disrupted traditional television and given rise to a world of video creators who make content catering to every imaginable niche interest."
This is a list of YouTube videos that journalists, online newspaper, or magazines have written about. To be considered for this list: the videos must be included on many separate articles from different publications (inclusive of all time periods), as chosen by their editorial staff. Each video must be recognised mainly for its corresponding YouTube upload, and already has an article on Wikipedia. There are 199 videos listed below.
2000s
Me at the zoo (2005)
Me at the zoo is recognized as the first video uploaded to the platform. The 19-second video features Jawed Karim, one of the co-founders of YouTube, being recorded by his high school friend, Yakov Lapitsky. In the video, Karim is seen standing in front of two elephants at the San Diego Zoo in California, where he briefly comments on the length of their trunks. Multiple publications agreed that the video embodies YouTube as a whole and stated it was a milestone of the platform's history. Karim has later updated the video's description several times.
My Snowboarding Skillz (2005)
My Snowboarding Skillz is a YouTube video uploaded shortly after the creation of Me at the zoo on April 23, 2005, recognized as the second video uploaded to the platform and the platform's first "fail video". The 11-second video features "mw" attempting to traverse a ramp or box feature, but ultimately fails at the end.
Pokemon Theme Music Video (2005)
Pokemon Theme Music Video was released on November 28, 2005 by the channel Smosh. It followed the same style as their other earlier videos, featuring the duo lip-syncing the original English theme song for the Pokémon anime. The video instantly became much more popular than any of their other videos. Over the course of its lifetime, it gained over 24 million views, and briefly became the most-viewed video on all of YouTube. The video was later removed from the site in 2007 due to a copyright infringement claim. Due to the channel's continued success, and Smosh's partnership with YouTube, the two recreated the video in November 2010, this time changing the words to be critical of The Pokémon Company taking down the Pokémon theme video.
Lazy Sunday (2005)
Lazy Sunday is a single and short film by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island. Some time in 2005 to 2006, multiple unofficial uploads of the video went viral and were cumulatively watched more than five million times on YouTube. YouTube at that time was a startup website that appeared to be aimed for video creators, but by February 2006, due to "Lazy Sunday", established itself as a home for any type of video sharing. In August 2013, the official Saturday Night Live YouTube channel uploaded "Lazy Sunday".
Where the Hell is Matt? 2005 (2005)
Where the Hell is Matt? is video that features Matt Harding of Dancing doing a dance "jig" in many different places around the world. The video garnered popularity on the video sharing site YouTube. There are now five major videos plus two outtakes and several background videos on YouTube. Matt dances alone in the first videos. In 2008 others join with him doing the dance "jig"; in 2010 he does the Diski Dance in South Africa. In 2012 he works with other dancers, sometimes using a local dance or another dance step. In 2007, Jawed Karim, one of the founders of YouTube, stated that Harding's video was his favorite on YouTube at that time.
Al Gore's Penguin Army (2006)
Al Gore's Penguin Army is a two-minute-long satirical webvideo posted on YouTube on May 24, 2006, spoofing Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth. There is evidence that the video is a product of the dishonest marketing technique of astroturfing. The Wall Street Journal consulted a professor of communications who described the spoof as "'Propaganda 101' and said: "It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image [of Al Gore]."
Bus Uncle (2006)
The Bus Uncle (X尚義聲線高壓呀叔搭巴士途中問候後生仔) is a Hong Kong Cantonese viral video depicting a verbal altercation between two men aboard a KMB bus in Hong Kong on 27 April 2006. The older and more belligerent of the two men was quickly nicknamed the "Bus Uncle", from the common Hong Kong practice of referring to older men as "Uncle" (阿叔).
Charlie the Unicorn (2006)
Charlie the Unicorn is a 2005 animated comedy short film created by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow in Orlando, Florida. Charlie the Unicorn has become increasingly popular since its inception. Following its posting on Newgrounds in 2005, Geoff Swanson of YouTube posted a copy of the video on the website in 2006, where it rapidly gained popularity.
La Caída de Edgar (2006)
La Caída de Edgar (Edgar's Fall) is a 2006 video of Mexican boys Edgar Martinez and Fernando, hiking in a ranch near their home town of Monterrey. It starts with Edgar using a makeshift bridge that crosses a small stream when Fernando makes a joke about pushing Edgar off the bridge into the water. Edgar finally loses his balance, plunging into the stream. Edgar curses more intensively as he emerges from the water, while Fernando asks for forgiveness.
lonelygirl15 (2006–2008)
lonelygirl15 is an American science fiction thriller web series created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders, Greg Goodfried, and Amanda Goodfried. It was independently released on YouTube from June 16, 2006, to August 1, 2008, and was also briefly released on Revver and Myspace. The series revolves around the initially mundane life of homeschooled 16-year-old Bree Avery played by Jessica Lee Rose (pictured), who uses the username Lonelygirl15 online.
Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years. (2006)
Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years (or Everyday) is an ongoing art project by American photographer Noah Kalina that gained widespread attention when the first segment of the project was released in 2006 and became a viral video. The first everyday video features a fast montage of thousands of pictures of Kalina spanning a period of six years all played sequentially as a time lapse.
Evolution of Dance (2006)
Evolution of Dance is a performance by Judson Laipply and uploaded by Ireneusz Krosny, the video consisted of 12 popular dance songs of the late 20th century. In the video which was later uploaded to YouTube on April 6, 2006, he is seen performing various dance moves on stage with a spot light pointing at him in under 8 minutes.
Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies) (2006)
Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies) is a 2006 video that started the "Free Hugs Campaign". The campaign became famous internationally in September 2006 as the result of a music video on YouTube for the song "All The Same" by Australian band Sick Puppies, which has been viewed over 79 million times as of March 2026.
OK Go - Here It Goes Again (Official Music Video) (2006)
Here It Goes Again is a 2006 song by American rock band OK Go. The music video of this song is a performance of the band dancing on eight treadmills, arranged in two rows of four and in alternating opposite directions, in a single continuous take. It was choreographed and co-directed by the band and lead singer Damian Kulash's sister Trish Sie and filmed at her home in Orlando, Florida. It took two to three days of practice and then 17 attempts to complete the video. The band's webmaster suggested they upload the video to YouTube, which at the time was just beginning to take off as a video sharing site. It release on YouTube on July 31, 2006, and has been viewed over 69 million times as of January 2026. Here It Goes Again won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 2006 YouTube awards for Most Creative Video.
Its Over 9000!!! [Original Video and Audio] (2006)
It's Over 9000!!! is an Internet meme that became popular in 2006, involving a change made for English localizations of an episode of the Dragon Ball Z anime television series titled "The Return of Goku", which originally aired in the United States on April 19, 1997. The popularity of the meme quickly spread, inspiring a series of remix videos on YouTube. The most viewed video clip uploaded on YouTube which references the phrase has received over 15 million views to date; various parodies and spoofs of the clip receive a large number of views on YouTube as well.
Kiwi! (2006)
Kiwi! is a 2006 computer-generated animation short film created by Dony Permedi as his Master's Thesis project at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The music was composed and performed by Tim Cassell. The short gained widespread popularity online after being uploaded to YouTube. the animation has been viewed over 49 million times. It won official recognition on March 26, 2007, when viewers voted it the Most Adorable video of 2006 in the first annual YouTube Video Awards.
Lo que tú Quieras Oír (2006)
Lo que tú quieras oír (Whatever You Want To Hear) is a Spanish language short drama by Guillermo Zapata added to YouTube on March 26, 2006. For a time, the video was the most-watched non-English video on YouTube, the third most-viewed video excluding music videos, and the twelfth most viewed of all time, with over 100 million views.
Loosechange2 (2006)
Loose Change is a series of seven films released between 2005 and 2017 that argue in favor of certain conspiracy theories relating to the September 11 attacks. The films were written and directed by Dylan Avery and produced by Korey Rowe, Jason Bermas, and Matthew Brown. Vanity Fair to say it could be the first Internet blockbuster. In April 2005, the first edition of Loose Change was made available for free on the Internet and was given a limited DVD release with 50,000 sold and 100,000 given away. The second edition of Loose Change was uploaded to YouTube under the title "".
Male Restroom Etiquette (2006)
Male Restroom Etiquette is a 2006 American short subject created by Phil R. Rice and produced by his company Zarathustra Studios. The film is a mockumentary about unwritten rules of behavior in male restrooms and is intended to be a parody of educational and social guidance films. the film became popular on YouTube, where, after being featured on the front page in early October 2006.
myspace: the movie (Official) (2006)