You have less than 24 hours to watch the original YouTube video ‘Charlie bit my finger’
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Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — Charlie will soon bite his brother’s finger for the last time.
The memorable and meme-able YouTube video “Charlie bit my finger,” one of the most viewed videos in the website’s history, will be sold off as a non-fungible token, or NFT, on Sunday and then deleted from YouTube, according to a website set up by the Davies-Carr family.
“Bid to own the soon-to-be-deleted YouTube phenomenon, Charlie Bit My Finger, leaving you as the sole owner of this lovable piece of internet history (while also getting the chance to say Charlie bit your finger, if you want to see what all the hype is about),” the website says.
The adorable 2007 video, just 55 seconds long, harkens to a more innocent time in Internet history. The video features baby Charlie chomping down on his older brother Harry’s pointer finger as Harry narrates in a charmed British accent.
“Ow, Charlie! Owww! Charlie! That really hurt!” Harry says, while Charlie breaks into a giggle. “Charlie bit me,” Harry concludes with a smile.
The family is just the latest meme-maker to get in on the NFT craze. NFTs transform digital works of art, collectibles, GIFs or memes into unique verifiable assets that are easy to trade on the blockchain. In essence, NFTs create authenticity and scarcity — which can sell for high prices.
The mainstreaming of NFTs over the last few months has created a way for the unpaid people behind the memes to turn their fame into dollars. For example, an NFT of the “Disaster girl” meme, showing a young girl smirking at the camera while a house burns in the background, sold last month for 180 Ethereum, or about $425,000.
The “Charlie Bit My Finger” NFT auction began on Saturday, which marked 14 years since the video was first uploaded to YouTube. The video has since racked up nearly 883 million views.
The auction winner will also have the opportunity to make a parody of the video featuring the now-teenage brothers Harry and Charlie, the website says. The auction is set to end around 9 a.m. ET Sunday.
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