Nam-ı Kemal jokes are a variety of extremely obscene jokes in Turkish folk literature. The term "Nam-ı Kemal" corresponds in Ottoman Turkish to the expression "A man...", as used in the beginning of a short and funny story in the English language. But the term went through an evolution in time due to its vocal similarity with the name of one of the most ground-breaking and famous poets and playwrights in the Turkish literature, Namık Kemal. With gradually less frequent use and weaker understanding of Ottoman terms among most speakers of standard Turkish, "Nam-ı kemal jokes" became, more often than not, "Namık Kemal jokes", although the respective natures of the content of these jokes and of the personality of the actual writer could not be further.^{[citation needed]}

A number of sources claimed that the conversion of "Nam-ı kemal jokes" into "Namık Kemal jokes" could have been caused partly of intention, in the form of an alleged effort by the Ottoman palace that would have been aimed at discrediting the ever-dissident writer in the eyes of the public. The fact that the general public held the poet dearly and also that a vast network of spies was indeed present during Abdülhamid II's reign with potential to destroy anyone's good repute are elements that support this theory as far as the motives and the means are concerned, but its essence remains unverifiable.

Namık Kemal, born as Mehmed Kemal (December 21, 1840 - December 2, 1888) was a Turkish nationalist poet, translator, journalist, and social reformer.

Kemal was born in Tekirdağ to an Albanian Turkish mother Fatma Zehra and father Yenişehirli Mustafa Asım in the Ottoman Empire. He was influenced by the growing national sentiment of his day, and published a politically controversial newspaper. When the government cracked down on the newspaper he fled to Western Europe and worked there as a translator. When he returned, his most famous work, "Vatan Yahut Silistre", was staged at the Gedikpaşa Theatre in Istanbul on April 1, 1873. The play promoted nationalism and liberalism, and was considered dangerous by the Ottoman government. Immediately afterward, on April 9, 1873, he was sent into exile by the Ottoman Sultan and imprisoned in Cyprus. He was pardoned by Murat V on June 3, 1876, and returned to Istanbul (Constantinople) on June 29, 1876. He later became the governor of Sakız (now Chios, Greece), where he died in 1888. He was laid to rest in Bolayır, Çanakkale Province on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Namık Kemal Zeybek (born 1944) is a Turkish politician and currently leader of the Democratic Party. A former civil servant as district governor, he was government minister in different cabinets.

He was born 1944 in the village of Kitre in Bayburt Province, northeastern Turkey. He graduated in 1966 from the Law School of Ankara University. After serving ten years as a district governor in several places, he was promoted to the undersecretary post at the Ministry of Customs and Monopoly. Zeybek worked then four years long as a coordinator in the private sector.

In 1987, he entered politics and was elected Deputy of Istanbul into the parliament from the Motherland Party. Between 1989-1991, he served as the Minister of Culture in the cabinets of Turgut Özal and Yıldırım Akbulut. Later in 1996, Zeybek was appointed again minister in the coalition cabinet of Necmettin Erbakan.

In 2007, Namık Kemal Zeybek joined the Great Union Party, and became its secretary general for a short time. In 2010, he entered the Democratic Party. At the 10th party congress held on January 15, 2011 in Ankara, he was elected leader of its party.

Mehmet Barış Manço (also spelled Boris Mancho in some European album releases), born Tosun Yusuf Mehmet Barış Manço, (January 2, 1943 - February 1, 1999) was a Turkish rock singer, composer, and television producer. The names Tosun and Yusuf were legally removed during his primary school years. He composed about 200 songs, some of which were translated into a variety of languages including English, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Persian, Urdu and Arabic. He remains one of the most popular public figures of Turkey.

Manço was born in Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey on January 2, 1943. His mother, Rikkat Uyanık, was a famous singer in early 1940s.^{[citation needed]} His older brother, who was born during World War II, was named Savaş^{[citation needed]} ("war" in Turkish) while he was named Barış ("peace" in Turkish) by his parents to celebrate the end of the war.^{[citation needed]} His fame greatly popularized the use of the name Barış in Turkey.^{[citation needed]} At birth, he was additionally named Tosun Yusuf after his deceased uncle Yusuf called Tosun (literally: Yusuf The Sturdy). However, this name was erased just before he attended the primary school.

İsmet Özel (born 19 September 1944 in Kayseri) is a Turkish poet and scholar.

Özel is the sixth child of a police officer from Söke. He attended his primary and secondary school in Kastamonu, Çankırı and Ankara. He attended classes at Political Science Faculty of Ankara University, but graduated from the French Language department of Hacettepe University.

Özel published Halkın Dostları magazine with Ataol Behramoğlu. Özel's songs of freedom derived its content from socialism but their structure and symbolism reflected the tastes of the Second New Generation movement in Turkish poetry. In the 1970s, Özel developed a mystic and Islamist view which shocked his leftist audience.

He worked as a French lecturer in the State Conservatory. He spent all his time writing after he retired. Because of both his interesting character and works, he took an impressive place among his contemporaries.

Özel, who published his early poems in 1963, became salient with densely using images and his meticulous effort to choose words. He collected his early poems in the book called Geceleyin Bir Koşu (A Run in the Night, 1966), in which he searches the truth of being human. His attributions about gathering the innovations and experimental sides of Turkish Poetry with social realism and his success to realize it caused to his second book called Evet İsyan (Yes, Rebel, 1969) made big echoes.