Mahir Çağrı
Born1962 (age 61–62)
Kars, Turkey
Other namesInternet Mahir (Turkish: İnternet Mahir)
I kiss you Mahir
Years active1999—present
Known forBlogging (romance and personal life)
Websitewww.ikissyou.co, archive of his famous website

Mahir Çağrı (Turkish pronunciation: [maːhiɾ tʃaːɾɯ], born 1962) is a Turkish individual who became an Internet celebrity in 1999. His picture-laden personal homepage, which exclaimed, in broken English, his love of the accordion, travel, and women, was visited by millions and spawned numerous fansites and parodies, one of which was featured on Fox's MadTV (season 5, episode 20). He was also repeatedly parodied in 1999 on episodes of the Late Show with David Letterman, wearing red Speedos and playing ping-pong. Çağrı was ranked #2 in CNET's Top 10 Web fads.[1] The site was also included in PC World's "The 25 Worst Web Sites" list.[2]

Çağrı claimed in various interviews that his personal webpage was hacked, with additions such as "I like sex" embedded into his webpage. The site was originally hosted on the now defunct XOOM web hosting service which advertised Çağrı on its front page during the mania.

Çağrı was used in British TV advertising for smartgroups.com by St. Luke's advertising agency.[3]

Similarities to Borat

Çağrı has stated that Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat was based on him, and is therefore owed some sort of royalties for use of his likeness.[4] However, Cohen had been developing a similar character since 1996 on the show F2F, before the Mahir webpage was published.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wood, Molly. "Top 10 Web fads". CNET. Archived from the original on 22 July 2005. Retrieved 22 July 2005.
  2. ↑ Tynan, Dan (15 September 2006). "The 25 Worst Web Sites". PC World.
  3. ↑ Newland, Francesca (26 May 2000). "St Luke chooses Mahir for Smartgroups spokesman". Campaign magazine.
  4. ↑ "Mahir Cagri - Interview about Borat". YouTube.
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