Brother biting video is YouTube king

OUCH: A screenshot of the "Charlie bit my finger - again!" video on YouTube.

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A 55-second video clip that was intended for an audience of just one has become the most watched YouTube video of all time.

Two-and-a-half years and 129 million-plus views after it was launched, Charlie Bit My Finger - Again! crept past the long-time incumbent over the weekend to claim the mantle.

The new No.1 clip features British brothers Harry and Charlie Davies-Carr, who were aged 5½ and two in May 2007 when their father, Howard, uploaded the video.

The video shows Charlie biting his older brother's finger. And, apart from Harry's protestations and interesting facial expressions, that's all there is to see.

Charlie Bit My Finger - Again! deposed Evolution of Dance, a clip uploaded by US motivational speaker Judson Laipply in April 2006.

As of today, the video has been viewed 129,546,156 times compared with Evolution's 129,125,769 views.

It was reportedly put up on the site for the benefit of the boys' godfather who lived overseas at the time.

"To say the response has been insane is not even close, Mr Davies-Carr, an IT consultant, said in a 2008 interview.

"My sons are now almost legendary. People want their autographs - it's just crazy."

In addition to being YouTube's all time most viewed video, the clips is also the video-sharing site's all time "most favourited" and the second most all time discussed.

Evolution has been twice previously knocked off as the most viewed YouTube video. The first time was in March 2008, when a clip titled Music Is My Hot Hot Sex by Brazilian electro band Cansei De Ser Sexy came out of nowhere to take the top spot.

It soon transpired that someone had been using performance-enhancing techniques to boost the stats. Soon after, the creator of the clip - an Italian named Clarus Bartel who was not party to the fiddle - deleted his video and Evolution was restored as No. 1.

The quirky video lost its top ranking again in August 2008 when singer Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend music video jumped ahead. However, this too turned out to be a manipulated result orchestrated by users on an Avril Lavigne fan site.

Evolution later regained its top ranking which it held until Saturday.

YouTube, which recently marked the third anniversary of its takeover by Google, says it is now serving more than 1 billion video views a day.

- © Fairfax NZ News