Charlie Bit My Finger
A dad filming his toddlers in England. The youngest bites the oldest's finger. "Ouch, Charlie! Charlie, that really hurt!" The giggle that followed became the most-viewed video on all of YouTube — and held the crown into 2011.
On May 22, 2007, Howard Davies-Carr hit record in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and captured 56 seconds of domestic accident: his three-year-old Harry and one-year-old Charlie, a baby's tiny jaw closing on an older brother's finger. "Ouch, Charlie! Charlie, that really hurt!" Harry yelped. Charlie giggled. Dad uploaded it to YouTube on his channel HDCYT.
It became the most-viewed video on all of YouTube from late October 2009 until 2011, when big-label music videos finally stole the crown. The view counter climbed past 888 million and kept counting. A camcorder accident was out-viewing television — the internet's appetite had spoken, and it wanted a baby laughing.
In May 2021, the family auctioned the clip as an NFT for $760,999 to a buyer called 3F Music, and the video was slated to come down from YouTube for good. Instead it went private in July 2021 — thirty months offline — then quietly returned in January 2024. The clip that once defined viral video lives again, giggle intact.
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