Charlie Bit My Finger

2007

Date: 22 May 2007 · Place: Buckinghamshire, England · Figures: Howard Davies-Carr, father and uploader · Harry Davies-Carr, three years old · Charlie Davies-Carr, one year old · Tags: Home Video Viral, YouTube 01. Fifty-Six Seconds Filmed For The Grandfather Howard Davies-Carr films his two sons on 22 May 2007 in their home in Buckinghamshire and uploads the fifty-six second clip to YouTube to share with the boys' grandfather in Colorado who cannot access email attachments. Harry, three, puts his finger in baby Charlie's mouth. Charlie bites. Harry yelps, then laughs. The video is, for several years, the most-viewed user-generated clip on YouTube, passing 800 million views before being intentionally removed. 02. Sold As An NFT, Reuploaded On 23 May 2021 the family auctions the original upload as a non-fungible token for 760,999 dollars and removes the video from YouTube. The buyer reuploads it. The reuploaded version, with reset view counter, continues to accumulate views. The clip stands as the founding artifact of the YouTube home-video economy, the genre that produces every subsequent family vlog and reaction-channel format. "Charlie bit me. And that really hurt, Charlie. And it's still hurting." — Harry Davies-Carr, 22 May 2007 Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'Charlie Bit My Finger' • Howard Davies-Carr, original YouTube upload (youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM) • BBC News, 'Charlie Bit My Finger video sold as NFT for £500,000' (24 May 2021)