(mouse clicks)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
What if I told you that inside that house live two boys
who star in one of the most popular videos on the internet ever?
- What? - (Boleto) And they're only 9
and 11 years old.
- Can you recognize these two? - (gasps) Oh my god.
"Charlie Bit My Finger"! Oh my god! Oh my god, they're old.
(in video) Charlie bit me.
It's the "Charlie bit me" kids.
Yo, it's taking me back.
- (in video) Charlie bit me. - They are cute, man.
- They are pretty cute. - (Boleto) This short clip
- featuring one-year-old Charlie... - Wow.
(Boleto) ...and his older brother, Harry,
has had millions of views online.
More than 815 million people have seen...
It didn't realize it had that many views.
(Boleto) ...eight years ago by the boys' dad.
Obligatory "I feel old."
(Boleto) Howard only ever shared his video
because the file was too big to send to friends over email.
(laughs) Oh my gosh, times have changed.
(Boleto) ...not taking music videos into account,
Charlie's cheeky moment is the biggest viral hit on YouTube.
What do you mean, not including music videos?
Vevo is extremely important.
(Boleto) The boys have even appeared in adverts.
Since that video landed online,
Charlie and Harry both have two younger brothers
to share their success with.
Wait, are they still making videos?
(Boleto) ...this 57-second video will most likely be viewed
one billion times.
- That's crazy. - A billion.
Oh my god.
Wow. That's crazy. They're old men now.
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
(Finebros) So how does seeing those boys today
all these years later make you feel?
I feel, like, old as dust.
Wow, I'm [bleep] old.
That tripped me out a little bit.
It's so weird, 'cause you're just seeing them as that one thing,
and then they're real people with real lives.
(Finebros) So the boys say they like the video,
but they find it odd that so many people have watched them.
Do you think, as they keep getting older,
their thoughts about this is gonna change?
No, I think they're always gonna think it's a bit weird.
As they get older, they're just gonna find it more hilarious
that people actually watched that so many times.
It's not like it's a super-embarrassing video.
It's not like the kid [bleep] his pants or something
and the other brother started eating it.
You know, it's just biting on a finger.
I'm sure it's a little surreal, 'cause they're thinking,
"That's us. Why do these guys want to see us so many times?"
Down the road, they're gonna realize it's this precious moment.
(Finebros) Do you remember the first time you watched
- "Charlie Bit My Finger"? - I do.
It was like one of those first YouTube videos you got on MySpace.
I've watched that video a million times,
just like everyone else did.
Everyone was quoting it and showing each other.
I remember seeing it and people being like,
"This video is crazy! It's gotten a hundred bajillion views!"
And watching it, you'd be like, "Really?"
Somebody's like, "You haven't seen 'Charlie Bit My Finger'?"
And I was like, "That sounds so weird. What is it?"
I saw it when it was already old news
and people were dropping it in cultural references.
And I'd be like, "Yeah, I know, right?
(under breath) What the hell is that?"
(Finebros) What was YouTube like eight years ago compared to now?
Man... it was a whole different world, bro.
It definitely used to be a little bit more of a house party.
And now it's turned into a big industrialized nightclub.
I just remember thinking it was where you go to see weird videos.
People weren't making businesses on YouTube.
I remember when I first started doing YouTube,
the most subscribed person was Brookers.
And she had 20,000 subscribers
and I thought it was the biggest deal ever.
I don't believe there was a partner program back then.
I'd say the number-one thing that's changed on YouTube
is the fact that now all the videos look so good.
It's very hard to compete with.
(Finebros) So YouTube is celebrating
- its tenth anniversary this year. - That is crazy!
(Finebros) What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago, I think I was just joining MySpace.
I was in third grade.
I was 11, so I wasn't on YouTube.
But I still was making videos ten years ago.
I'll tell you what I was doing.
I was not getting kissed in high school, that's for sure.
I was uploading songs on MySpace, trying to be a famous rapper.
I was graduated from college
and scared [bleep]less about the next year of my life.
(dreamily) I was a freshman in college.
I wanted to be a singer, and now
I'm the worst kind of singer.
I was moving from Chicago to Los Angeles
to be an actor and to study comedy.
I was playing music and playing shows.
I had a couple of videos up on YouTube at the time,
but I didn't understand the power of them.
(Finebros) And what was the moment that you decided,
"Oh, I'm gonna start using YouTube"?
YouTube, for me, somebody was like, oh, there's a girl in the UK.
Her name was Lauren Luke, Panacea81.
And she was selling makeup online,
but she would do tutorials to show you how to use the makeup.
And I was like, "I'm gonna be the US version of her."
It started off as like, I just need a platform.
I wanted to make little sketches and parodies and skits
with my family and friends.
I sent videos of me performing to my parents.
And then I saw videos of other people
singing the same songs as me but in their bedroom,
and I thought that was freaking weird.
And so then I uploaded Miranda videos as a joke.
My friends and I at the time, we were amateur filmmakers.
We ran out of bandwidth on our website.
So I was like, "Yo bro, you can put our movies
on this YouTube website
and then we don't have to worry about the bandwidth."
I first got into YouTube
because my best friend, Grace Helbig, was doing it.
I didn't know there was a business aspect of it at all.
(Finebros) Was there a moment that you remember
of when YouTube changed for you
from just being something you were doing as a hobby
to realizing this could be something bigger?
Um... I think I realized YouTube was bigger than I thought it was
when I uploaded a video of me and my cousins
dancing to Hannah Montana.
I just thought it was crazy that that many people
found my Hannah Montana dancing video.
The first time I saw "Lazy Sunday."
And I think that's when I realized,
holy moly, videos can spread like wildfire.
Miranda had existed online for a year and a half
before a video went "viral."
And back then, that meant, like, 70,000 views.
And I think it was probably a year or more after that
when I finally realized like, oh, people do this.
Like, people upload videos and it's a job.
The first video that ever, I guess, went "viral" for me
was this Michael Jackson medley.
And if you could get people to follow you,
then you could find some way
of turning that into a living for yourself.
I got an email from him about you guys.
I had made a YouTube video called "A Picture Song."
And you guys were like, "This is great!"
That's how I got into YouTube.
I still have that email, by the way.
I still have that email too.
(Finebros) And could you ever have imagined that YouTube
- would grow into what it is today? - Um, yeah. I can imagine it.
The world was kind of waiting for something like that.
I figured it would be something huge.
I just didn't think it would be something huge for me.
I knew what I wanted to do, you know?
I had no idea YouTube was gonna be the tool
that helped me gain my audience.
Absolutely not. I never in a million years
thought it could be a sustainable career.
Absolutely not. This is crazy.
And it's still crazy to me that not everyone knows what it is.
When I uploaded my first Miranda video, if someone said,
"Hey, six, seven years from now,
you're gonna be making money doing this
and you're gonna love it and it's gonna be your full-time job,"
I would laugh in their face.
I've made Miranda videos making fun of people who thought that.
(Finebros) Do you still feel, though,
that there is some stigmas and stereotypes
about content on YouTube, despite how big it's gotten?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
And it's gonna take a heck of a lot of time
for those stereotypes to go away.
My friends will be like,
"Oh, are you still uploading your little videos to YouTube?"
And I'm like, "My little videos? This is my life."
I think most people think of YouTube
as a place to watch viral videos of cats
and kids biting their brother.
I don't think most people think YouTube can be a career still.
I think the stereotype about,
"Oh, everything on YouTube sucks" goes for TV too.
I think for every Catfish, which is a great show,
you have 500 million terribly [bleep] shows.
YouTube veers a little younger,
and I think everyone's catching up.
There's people making books and people making whole businesses,
like you guys and Michelle Phan.
Definitely one thing in people's mind now,
which I think wasn't in their mind five years ago,
is that this is a person who actually has real fans online
because of their YouTube videos.
But also because Vine's all new, the YouTubers are like,
(pompous tone) "Pfft! What is this Vine thing?
Like, what are you guys? Only six-second videos?
Pfft! Is that it?" You know what I'm saying?
Where it's almost like we've taken on the role
of the traditional media, and we're like,
"Pfft! What is this [bleep]?"
(Finebros) So back to the video,
this channel has continued to upload over the years,
but it hasn't really worked.
Why do you think people that get accidental viral fame
have mostly struggled to maintain an audience on YouTube?
Because nothing's gonna top the first time.
It's lightning in a bottle. You can't recreate that.
You have this video that propels you
in front of everybody, in front of the world.
But at the same time,
that's the only thing they want to know you for.
When you have something that explodes like that,
like a song or a one-hit wonder, it gets a lot of attention.
But then they kind of forget.
Whereas if people build a following,
they're building a loyal group of friends.
One video can't really do that.
(Finebros) So finally, YouTube's hit this milestone--
ten years of this website.
Can you talk about what YouTube means to you
- and what it's done for your life? - Yeah.
I've been doing YouTube since I was 12,
so it's definitely shaped my life.
I feel like YouTube was a dream I never dreamed
that came true for me.
YouTube for me has been the key in unlocking the doors
that I wouldn't be able to open for the life of me.
Completely would be how I would describe it's changed my life.
Music was always something that I had a passion for,
but I didn't think I would be able to make a living off of it.
Oh my god, you're gonna get me all emotional.
Growing up, I always wanted to make a change in kids' lives.
And now I get to make a change in kids' lives every single day
just by uploading videos and making them laugh.
YouTube has created a life for me.
Without YouTube, I'd probably be an elementary school teacher.
And that is terrifying.
So... thank you, YouTube.
Thanks so much for watching this episode of YouTubers React.
Make sure you help support the show and everybody below
by subscribing to everybody.
There's more fun waiting for you all below here.
Bye, guys.
Bye! Bring on the next ten years. Woo!
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