Şaban

Şaban, the Turkish equivalent of the Islamic month Sha'aban, is a popular cinema character, portrayed by the legendary Turkish actor Kemal Sunal. Both figures rose to fame hand to hand, as the commoner clean-hearted looks of Şaban on the screen became very popular among Turkish citizens, and the two names had been used interchangeably, similar to the connection between The Tramp and Charlie Chaplin. The character sometimes appeared as "İnek Şaban" (Şaban the cow), most significantly in the popular film series Hababam Sınıfı.

Even if Sunal went onto play darker and more realistic characters in his latter projects, Şaban became a trademark figure in the national filming history. One of the most popular films which features Şaban is Tosun Paşa, which is also a popular theme in the stories of the contemporary comic strip character of Uykusuz [http://www.uykusuzdergi.com] artist Uğur Gürsoy [http://www.uykusuzdergi.com/blog/ugur-gursoy] , "Fırat" [http://www.uykusuzdergi.com/blog/ugur-gursoy/firat] .