In May 2007, Howard Davies-Carr uploaded a simple home video to YouTube. His plan? Share a funny moment with family members who lived too far away to email the large file. The 55-second clip showed his two sons, Harry (then 3) and Charlie (then 1), sitting in an armchair. Harry stuck his finger in baby Charlie's mouth, and Charlie... well, he bit it. Hard. Harry's bewildered "Ouch, Charlie!" and "Charlie bit me!" became one of the most iconic phrases in internet history.
What makes this meme's success so fascinating is its accidental nature. The Davies-Carrs weren't trying to go viral—the term barely existed yet. They'd actually filmed a previous attempt where Charlie didn't bite down hard enough, so they tried again. That second take became internet gold. By 2009, it had surpassed 100 million views, making it YouTube's most-watched video at the time. It eventually racked up over 885 million views before being removed in 2021.
The video's popularity spawned an entire ecosystem of parodies, remixes, and merchandise. There were auto-tuned musical versions, dramatic reenactments, and even a "Charlie Bit My Finger" video game. The Davies-Carr family reportedly earned over $1 million from YouTube ad revenue alone, plus additional income from licensing deals and TV appearances. Not bad for something that started as a file-sharing workaround. The boys became genuine celebrities, appearing on shows from "The Today Show" to Britain's "Big Brother," always sporting matching outfits that became part of their brand.
Here's the wildest part: In May 2021, the original video was sold as an NFT for $760,999 and subsequently deleted from YouTube. The buyer, a Dubai-based music producer, now owns the "only" official copy. The Davies-Carrs called it a way to make the video "a piece of internet history forever" and celebrate the 14th anniversary. Though copies still exist across the internet (because that's how the internet works), the original upload—with all its comments and cultural weight—is gone. Charlie and Harry, now young adults, have mostly stayed out of the spotlight, occasionally posting throwback content that makes millennials feel ancient. That baby giggle, though? It's permanently etched into meme culture, a reminder of when viral videos were still charmingly unscripted and wonderfully weird.