Charlie Bit My Finger_
What is this?
The moment
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Guide — the 2007 viral moment as a looping cartoon
An original canvas cartoon of the bite with captions, an adjustable loop speed, and a button that plays the real video in YouTube’s player.Harry offers his finger, Charlie bites, Harry yelps and then laughs. Loop speed 1 to 10 sets one round from 25 seconds down to 2.5 seconds (5 seconds by default).
Toggle Captions (or press C) for “Charlie bit me!”, “Ouch, Charlie!” and “…hehehe!”, and turn the retro Scanlines on or off.
Press Watch the original or V to load the real video in YouTube’s embedded player. A Mute toggle and Volume slider (80% by default) appear; Back to animation or V stops it.
Press Enter Fullscreen, click the cartoon or press F. Move the mouse to show Exit Fullscreen, or press Esc.
Space or Pause freezes the cartoon, or pauses the video while it plays. R or Reset Defaults restores the settings and returns to the animation.
Shortcuts and setup
- F
- Fullscreen on/off
- Space
- Pause / resume
- V
- Original video / back to animation
- C
- Captions on/off
- R
- Reset to defaults
- Esc
- Leave fullscreen
- approach
- Harry’s finger moves in
- bite
- “Charlie bit me!”
- react
- “Ouch, Charlie!”
- laugh
- “…hehehe!”, then it starts again
- TV / monitor
- Open the page, press F, leave the cartoon running
- screen sleep
- The page does not keep the display awake: set your sleep timer to Never while it runs
- YouTube
- The player script loads from youtube.com when the page opens; the video only loads when you ask for it
Charlie Bit My Finger, explained
What is "Charlie bit my finger"?
“Charlie bit my finger - again!” is a short home video uploaded to YouTube in May 2007 by an English father (channel HDCYT) of his two young sons: baby Charlie bites the finger of his older brother Harry, who yelps and then laughs. It became one of the most-viewed YouTube videos of its era and a symbol of the early viral web.
Does this play the real video?
Only if you ask for it. The screensaver itself is an original animated tribute. Press Watch the original (or V) and the official upload is embedded from YouTube with its standard player, so it plays on YouTube’s terms. Note that the page loads YouTube’s player script from youtube.com as soon as it opens; the video itself is only requested when you press the button.
Is the animation the original footage?
No. The looping cartoon of the two brothers in an armchair is an original drawing made with JavaScript on an HTML5 canvas. It evokes the moment without using the real footage; the only text it shows are three short captions: “Charlie bit me!”, “Ouch, Charlie!” and “…hehehe!”.
How do I run it fullscreen?
Click the cartoon, press Enter Fullscreen or press F. Move the mouse to show the Exit Fullscreen button, which hides again after 2.5 seconds, or press Esc to leave. Clicking the screen while the YouTube video is showing does not switch to fullscreen; use the button, F, or the player’s own fullscreen control.