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Culture on Demand: Mahir Mania
Who's to say what (or who) becomes the latest Net craze?
By STAN STALNAKER
November 27, 1999
Web posted at 1 p.m. Hong Kong time, 12 a.m. EDT
It's happening with increasing frequency.
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You arrive at work and sit down with your nice steaming cup of tea, all ready to begin another day at the office.
There, patiently waiting in the e-mail in box (and shining like a little gem), is a title you just can't resist but know you should. "OPEN THIS, it's good." "Asia Pollution.jpg." "Clinton/Jiang do WTO." You name it, it's creeping in, sent by friends spanning the world. Interesting as they may be, compared with e-mail from your boss, ringing phones and the 75 other things on your plate, these messages just don't rank very high on the list of Things to Do Today.
Yes, the ubiquitous e-mail forward. Generally trashy. And usually met with a groan and deleted within 1.5 seconds. Until, that is, you get kissed by Mahir. Mahir, who used to be just an average guy living in Izmir, Turkey, has been reborn as an Internet phenomenon.
He has grown so large, so quickly, that everybody seems to know about him, even though he hasn't done anything. Mahir has aliases (like "Turk Stud"), his own Web ring, dancing videos, knockoff images, a fan club. Mahir gets calls for magazine interviews, and thousands of fan letters photos come pouring into his mailbox from around the world. With a million home page hits he's practically his own entertainment property--all in just a few short weeks.
The thing is, Mahir didn't create the phenomenon. He simply posted a Web page of himself in relatively ill-fitting suits, scary bikini swimwear and good-attempt English. He included an invitation for visitors to come and visit him in Turkey. Then he probably forgot about it.
Then someone, somewhere, discovered the site and created a flash-video of the images, adding bad techno music. They presumably sent this to their friends. Who sent it on. And on. And on.
The original, which I saw about six weeks ago, was really funny--an amateur homepage that makes just about everyone who sees it burst out laughing. "Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate ... She can stay my home ... I speake turkish , english , rusian , I want to learn other language!" With sincerity like that, who wouldn't laugh? And the pictures? Too funny.
But then the real fun started. As it spread, Mahir became a virtual public property. Soon e-mails were arriving with dancing Mahirs, accordion-player Mahirs, Bill Clinton as Mahir (actually the similarities are frightening), Mahir on Mount Rushmore, Mahir as Michael Jackson.
Spin.com called. Salon did a story. Rolling Stone and Who Australia sent interviewers. Parody websites appeared. They began bidding for hosting rights. And a star was born. (Until next week, when the dancing hamsters take over.)
This, my friends, is the brave new world of Netertainment. It raises lots of questions. Like what if Mahir doesn't really like 5 million people seeing pictures of him in bulging animated Speedos? I wouldn't like that. What if Mahir doesn't want to become fodder for the pundits, who examine his statement "I like sex" with alarming seriousness? I wouldn't like that.
And it's totally out of his control. Mahir doesn't have an army of litigating lawyers to enforce copyrights on photos of him playing ping-pong. Half the stuff out there he's probably never going to see. I shudder to think of how many porn sites he's already been grafted into.
After a visit to Mahir's home page, and the parody sites and fan pictures to which he has kindly provided links, it's fun to think about what it all means. Anything you post on the Web, in Asia, in Europe, in the deepest Amazon, is essentially public property. One rather hopes lots of people see it. But then again, maybe one hopes not everyone. Despite protests on our part and whether it's legal or not, when anyone with a few manipulation skills sees something on the Web, nearly anything can be done with it.
The Mahir phenomenon is funny, but it's a little sad, too, because it demonstrates a lack of respect for intellectual and digital property. Even Mahir posts a disclaimer on his Website, saying he's "cut out persons pictures except Mahir" in order to respect their privacy. Everyone talks about how companies can and should protect themselves on the Web, but not much has been said about the individual.
Maybe it's O.K. as long as nobody minds. And at any rate, Mahir now has tons of fans interested in Turkey, sending messages of love and kisses around the world. He'll probably have an IPO soon.
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