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The 'Charlie Bit My Finger' Viral Video Will Leave YouTube And Sell As NFT
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Yet another beloved piece of Internet history has been bitten by the NFT bug.
The family behind "Charlie Bit My Finger" is auctioning off the wildly popular 2007 home video in the form of a nonfungible token, or a NFT, giving the highest bidder a chance to own an original copy.
The Davies-Carr family announced that the video would be deleted from YouTube on May 23 following the auction.
The 55-second video, uploaded in the early days of YouTube, features a British toddler named Harry holding his baby brother Charlie — a scene that quickly escalates when Harry puts his finger in his brother's mouth. Charlie, of course, bites down — and the iconic lines are born: "Ouch, Charlie!" and "Charlie, that really hurt!"
It's one of the most-viewed videos ever, with more than 882 million view counts.
The move to join the recent NFT craze follows the path of other meme sensations emerging from the Internet of yore. Zoë Roth, better known as "Disaster Girl," sold the iconic photo of her toddler self for close to a half-million dollars. "Bad Luck Brian" also jumped on the NFT bandwagon.
Bidding for the Davies-Carr video starts on May 22, marking the 14th anniversary of the video's debut. And there's a bonus: The highest NFT bidder will get the chance to make their own "Charlie Bit My Finger" parody with the video's original stars.
Harry, now 17, and Charlie, 15, see the auction as "the perfect opportunity to embrace the next iteration of the internet," a statement read.
"Charlie Bit My Finger has been a huge part of the Davies-Carr family's lives for the past 14 years, and they are excited to welcome others to become a part of their story. This is not the end of the beloved video, but rather a new beginning."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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