Turkish comedian Deniz Goktas, known for his sharp political satire, went viral on June 24 after uploading his stand-up show Dead Sea on YouTube. The show is his second and has gone online three years after Goktas shot to fame with his first show, Selam Selam, so far viewed around six million times since being uploaded on to the platform in 2023.

Goktas is an introvert character, something which is rather rare in Turkey where almost all popular comedians are “cheeky boys”. He has his own audience, people who are mainly found in and around Kadikoy district on the Anatolian side of Istanbul and in the capital Ankara.

Alevi, and of course leftist, revolutionist

Goktas himself is from Ankara, where he was born to Alevi (Alawi, or Alawite) and leftist, revolutionist parents. Those who have some idea of Turkey would know the typology, something which is actually the main theme of Goktas’ comedy sets.

In the Dead Sea upload, Goktas explains that he has been delivering his second set for around three years. The show performance placed on YouTube was staged and shot on June 1 at Harbiye Open Air Theatre in Istanbul before an audience of 5,000.

Will the third set ever see the light of day?

A third comedy set from Goktas is most probably on the way, given that the second is now available on free viewing. However, his followers are holding their breath. The content of the second set contains jokes about Turkey’s authoritarian leader of 23 years Recep Tayyip Erdogan that were most likely staged and kept behind closed doors until now. The upload that has gone viral means that these jokes are now very much in the public domain.

Pro-government media and trolls are currently waking up to this development. Very soon, all of them will be aware that Erdogan was openly called a “dictator”.

“So, Tayyip Erdogan is supposed to be a dictator, yet Deniz Goktas can gather hundreds of people and speak like this? Yeah, right,” one post made on a leading troll account reads, adding: “Deniz Goktas has clearly found his marketing strategy. As long as you talk smack about Tayyip Erdogan, there’s nothing you can’t sell to opponents. Even if he’s just a third-grade comedian candidate, his target audience is ready-made.”

From “shy” to “at peace”

During his performance, Goktas describes Erdogan as having transitioned from a "shy dictator" to one who is "at peace with his own identity".

He also targets Erdogan’s public persona, claiming that the only time the long-serving leader appeared to smile genuinely was during a visit to a cemetery.

Archive video: Erdogan, interviewed when he was mayor of Istanbul, cannot keep a straight face when he finds himself advising a journalist, who quizzed him about complaints over dirty and untended cemeteries, to hang around the cemeteries to observe what a great condition they are actually in.

Mocking the “genius” son-in-law

Goktas’ Dead Sea takes a pop at Turkey’s highly touted defence manufacturing industry. Jokes targeting Erdogan’s younger son-in-law, Selcuk Bayraktar, well-known for his production of military drones, are among those made.

Goktas quips that state projects are kept with relatives for the sake of “keeping the money within” the family.

Many other witticisms are made at the expense of multiple political figures.

Fans of Goktas await the response from the powers that be with some foreboding.