If you’ve ever heard a baby laugh, you know that it’s one of the most amazing noises you’ll ever hear. Take that sound and multiply it four times!
North Carolina’s Steve and Allison Mathias made one of the most popular viral videos of the digital age in 2001. The couple had just welcomed four lovely baby daughters into their life, and they were cuddling when Steve began filming the kids’ contagious smiles.
Steve was making silly faces and noises behind the camera, causing each of the girls to giggle uncontrollably at their daddy’s silly antics. There’s just something about the way all four babies keep erupting into giggles that makes everyone who hears it smile from ear to ear.
Since YouTube hadn’t been founded yet, Steve did what everyone else did at the turn of the century with a particularly humorous video: he put it into “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
Not surprisingly, the Mathias quads were a massive hit on the show, and the family ended up $395,000 richer when all was said and done! Not only that, but once the video finally made it onto the internet, it continued to make people smile all over the world.
Oprah Winfrey caught up with the Mathias clan via Skype. The girls were sixteen at the time, and while they now have very different styles (no more matching outfits!) and interests, they still love watching the video that helped their family accomplish so much throughout their lives.
Steve told Oprah, “We won three times on ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos,’ and that came with prize money that, you know, just changed a lot of things in our lives.”
“I think it’s just one of those videos that you can’t laugh at. There’s something about the syncopation with them stopping and starting laughing. It’s just the contagious type of laugh,” Steve continued.
Mary Claire, Emily, Grace, and Anna are now lovely young women whose lives are just getting started. We hope they continue to find the things that make them giggle as they reach adulthood!
Watch the clip that started it all below, and doesn’t forget to share!
