Mahir Çağrı (, born 1962) is a Turkish individual who became an

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in 1999. His picture-laden personal homepage, which exclaimed, in broken English, his love of the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

, travel, and women, was visited by millions and spawned numerous fansites and parodies, one of which was featured on Fox's ''

MadTV ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. Loosely based on the humor magazine '' Mad'', ''Mad TVs pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily parodie ...

'' (season 5, episode 20). He was also repeatedly parodied in 1999 on episodes of the ''

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

'', wearing red

Speedo Speedo International Limited is an Australian-British distributor of Swimsuit, swimwear and swim-related accessories based in Nottingham, England. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1914 by Alexander MacRae, a Scottish emigrant, the company is n ...

s and playing

ping-pong Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

. Çağrı was ranked #2 in CNET's ''Top 10 Web fads''. The site was also included in

PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tec ...

's "The 25 Worst Web Sites" list. 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

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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.

Similarities to Borat

Çağrı has stated that

Sacha Baron Cohen Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( ; born 13 October 1971) is an English comedian, actor and performance artist. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haf ...

's character

Borat ''Borat'' (also known as ''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'') is a 2006 mockumentary directed by Larry Charles, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakhs, Kazakh jou ...

was based on him, and is therefore owed some sort of royalties for use of his likeness.

References

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

January 19, 2007
"Real Borat" hopes to make film
-

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

November 9, 2006
İnternet Mahir BBC'de: Ben de kendi filmimi yapmak istiyorum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cagri, Mahir 1962 births Internet memes introduced in 1999 Living people People from İzmir Turkish Internet celebrities

Similarities to Borat

See also

References

External links