YouTube, snails and James Charles? Why TikTok is mad at Charli and Dixie D’Amelio

The queen bee of TikTok, Charli D’Amelio, was about a million clicks away from her goal of a whopping 100 million followers on the Gen Z-facing platform.

But, to quote Emily Dickinson, “Fame is a fickle food.�

The teen dance phenom has been hemorrhaging followers — nearly a million of them — on the popular social media app this week because of a recent video of her family sharing dinner with YouTube beauty star James Charles, which left fans of the D’Amelio sisters with a bad taste in their mouths.

Both Charli, 16, and her sister, Dixie, 19, are accused of disrespecting their private chef, who prepared and served them a multicourse meal for the first episode of “Dinner With the D’Amelios,� a web series starring its titular family and a rotating guest.

First up was Charles, the controversial makeup artist and a close friend of the D’Amelio sisters, who joined them for Mediterranean salad and paella night, courtesy of chef Aaron May.

As May begins to preview the menu for the evening, a number of viewers immediately noticed Charli pulling faces instead of paying attention to his presentation.

Strike one.

“She was making faces while the chef was talking,� one YouTube commenter wrote. “Idk if she was trying to be quirky or relatable but it didn’t seem fun, it came across as plain rude.�

But it was really Dixie who ended up stealing the show — and not in a good way. Shortly after the main course arrives, the camera zooms in on the elder D’Amelio sister gagging and picking at something on her plate.

“What is this?!� she barks at May, who explains that snail is “classic in paella� and is “actually an omen of good luck and fortune.�

Rather than setting the snail aside and eating around it, Dixie proceeds to try it again, muttering, “Mmm, yummy,� before dramatically spitting it out over the back of her chair and running outside to vomit — all in front of May. Cut to Charli, who asks for some “dino nuggets� — also in front of May.

“Honestly I feel bad for the chef bc Dixie was disgusted at the food when he obviously spent a lot of time and effort into it,� one YouTuber wrote.

“The least she could do was say ‘this isnt really my thing but thank you so much’ or something but she decided to be a drama queen and throw up and just-please.�

On Wednesday, Dixie addressed the backlash, claiming that the snail snafu was a prank staged by her team, who are aware she pukes “at the smell, thought or the taste of anything� and wanted to “get a reaction out of her.�

“I’m so grateful for every single person that follows me, every single person I care about, every single person I work with, every single person who works with me because I’m just so grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had,� she said on TikTok.

“I would never in any way want to be taken as disrespectful, especially from an out-of-context, 15-second clip. ... I love [Chef May], and I would never disrespect him in any way. Maybe don’t judge someone’s personality over a 15-second video.�

As of Thursday afternoon, Dixie had 43.8 million followers on TikTok, down just a fraction from her prescandal total.

Charli has also responded to the criticism, which has taken a significant toll on her massive TikTok following. At press time, her tally of about 99.4 million had fallen to 98.5 million since “Dinner With the D’Amelios� premiered Wednesday.

In an Instagram video, Charli explained that their team had been encouraging Dixie off-camera to eat the snail and that May was “in on the joke.� The “dino nuggets� comment was intended to make light of the fact that she, like her sister, is a “picky eater.�

She added that she has been receiving “really, really messed-up messages� from people “telling me to hurt myself� and “blatantly disrespecting the fact that I’m still a human being.�

“All of this is happening because of a misunderstanding?� a tearful Charli said Thursday. “I just feel like that’s not OK, and if this is the community that I’m in and the community that I put myself in, I don’t know that I want to do that anymore.

“And I know that this is gonna be a huge joke to whoever sees it, but at the end of the day, just be nice. Don’t tell people to kill themselves. I feel like it’s not that hard,� she continued. “And you can say whatever. You can say I’m disrespectful. You can say I don’t have basic human decency, but at the end of the day, I’m still a person no matter how many followers I have.�

The social media sensation still boasts the most followers on the platform — a well-known stat that also came up during their dinner party gone wrong.

“It hasn’t even been a year since I hit a million. I wish I had more time,� Charli laments later in the episode. “‘Cause imagine if I hit 100 mil a year after hitting a mil.�

“Was the 95 not enough for you?� quips Charles, who has emerged the hero of this whole kerfuffle for checking the D’Amelio girls’ behavior and modeling polite manners — despite having been at the center of many an internet scandal himself.

“This charli situation is NOT sitting right with me,� the makeup artist tweeted Thursday in defense of his friend. “100M followers in one year & y’all expect her to know how to be a perfect role model? death threats because she’s a picky eater & made a joke about a milestone? 30+ year olds dragging someone half their age? feels familiar.�