I Kiss You!

About

I Kiss You! is a popular internet meme based on the personal homepage of Mahir Cagri from Izmir, Turkey, who unknowingly pioneered the prototype of online dating profiles in 1999.

Origin

The site first appeared on the now defunct free site host xoom.com and was one of the first widely circulated Internet memes, up there with Hamster Dance and Dancing Baby.

The original text of Cagri’s website said:

“I like music , I have many many music enstrumans my home I can play

I like sport , swiming , basketball , tenis , volayball , walk ………"

and

“My profession jurnalist , music and sport teacher , I make psycolojy doctora

I like to take foto-camera (amimals , towns , nice nude models and peoples)….."

A variant of his page, hosted on http://istanbul.tc/mahir/mahir/ made the addition:

“I like sex”

Very Nice!

Borat Controversy

Apparently the “I Kiss You” guy is suing Sacha Baron Cohen, who wrote & plays the character “Borat”. Cohen contends that his Borat character originated in 1997, two years prior to Cagir’s page. → further reading

Cohen cites an audition tape submitted to Channel 4 in 1994. It is Sacha Baron Cohen doing a character named Kristo, a character from Albania learning about the UK, who would later evolve into Borat:

Related

• “Hello My Future Girlfriend” is another late 90’s website decidated to finding companionship, though made by an 11-year old American instead of a Turkish adult male.