Update, Nov, 18, 5:55 p.m. ET: YouTube is now back up and functioning properly.

YouTube is currently down. The world's biggest video host and second-largest search engine is inaccessible as of 5:25 p.m. ET, meaning that instead of seeing your favorite viral videos, cats and memes, visiting the site serves up a big ol' 500 Internal Server Error:

Early Monday morning, YouTube experienced some sporadic outages affecting how certain videos were viewed. Since you can't visit YouTube, let us know your favorite alternatives in the comments.

In a statement, YouTube said:

"Some people are encountering errors, or a slower than normal experience on YouTube today. We’re working to fix the problem as soon as possible."

Image: YouTube, Mashable composite; Screenshot by Mashable