How Finger-Biting Charlie's Family Manages Fame

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Like most YouTube watchers, you probably stopped thinking about Charlie and Harry, stars of the 2007 "Charlie Bit my Finger" video, as soon as the 56-second clip ended, but they actually have lives outside YouTube. As The New York Times reports in a fun check-in with the viral kids, the video's certainly made those lives more exciting. The video has already paid for Harry and Charlie Davis-Carr's college education through YouTube ad-profit sharing which has brought profits in “in excess of £100,000,” and the boys have become offline celebrities in Britain: "The family gets recognized in random places — on the subway in London; in the house, by the washing-machine repairman," according to The TImes Sarah Lyall. But of course Howard Davis-Carr, the boys' dad, has to be careful he doesn't exploit them -- at least not any more than everyone else already is:

It has been a hard line to walk. Mr. Davies-Carr did not set out to sell themed T-shirts, for instance, but did it almost as a defensive gesture in response to the marketplace. “Why on earth would anyone want to wear a ‘Charlie Bit Me’ T-shirt?” he asked rhetorically. “But I found hundreds of different people all over the world selling them already.”

In case you forgot, here's why:

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