Like Odysseus, Mahir's story was too good to stay a secret for long. People magazine called, and Time, and then USA Today. But in small ways, celebrity via the Internet breaks the mold of 20th century fame. People who've been raised in the culture of the Internet have big BS filters. You have everybody and her mother trying to get attention, using publicity stunts.
People are deaf to it.
The Internet is the only place he could've been discovered. Mahir himself, in a chat during his promotional swing through Manhattan, says he wants to use his stardom to do good. Lest you get the idea that his hometown of Izmir, Turkey, is actually on the planet Kathie Lee, Mahir brings it back home. With that, Mahir trundled off on his publicity circuit of the United States, another celebrity famous for doing very little, with the chance to be even more famous as the first celebrity to be famous for doing very little, but on the Internet.