John Safran mocks Nazis and offence, but what is his new doco actually saying?
Shut Your Big Fat Mouth John Safran! ★★★
What do a holistic healer, neo-Nazis, a TikTok-famous sex worker, an exorcist and genital contortionists Puppetry of The Penis have in common? Not sure? Does it help if we add in Yorta Yorta rapper Briggs and Josh Bornstein, the lawyer who successfully represented Antoinette Lattouf in her unfair dismissal against the ABC?
They’re just a few of the characters of Shut Your Big Fat Mouth John Safran! — an enjoyable if not scattershot new, hour-long documentary about free speech and the right to offend from one of Australia’s most beloved boundary-pushers. No, the dots don’t all connect while watching. But you’ll be surprised, shocked and entertained. In short, it’s a John Safran special.
Since the ’90s, Safran’s poked and prodded at cultural, political, religious and ethnic divides with stunt-led documentaries, TV shows and books, often playing with his own identity as a Jewish-Australian. He’s tried to join the Ku Klux Klan; he’s swapped his sperm with a Palestinian’s at an Israeli sperm bank; he’s been crucified in the Philippines. What’s next?
In Shut Your Big Fat Mouth, Safran questions whether his offence-intended style still works, not just because of cultural shifts but also the anti-hate speech laws introduced after last year’s Bondi terror attack – alongside others implemented in recent years due to rising anti-Semitism.
“As an artist, my instinct is to allow for more free speech not less,” Safran says. “But of course, more free speech would unleash more tirades against Jews, of which I am one ... I’ve made a career out of blasphemy and offence... Is my entire schtick on the precipice of being made illegal?”
That premise isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds. After all, Shut Your Big Fat Mouth sees Safran take sieg heil pointers from neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant, the first Australian convicted under Victorian laws banning Nazi gestures. Safran, naturally, wants to use it “ironically” against an enemy. For both their sakes, the lesson’s off-camera (though we do hear Hersant’s coaching).
It’s a classic Safran bit, getting up-close to hatred and making a mockery of it, especially if it’s directed at him. There are plenty of sillier antics too, such as when Safran attempts to gift Gina Rinehart a portrait he painted, riffing off the magnate’s request to remove Vincent Namatjira’s portrait of her from the National Gallery of Australia.
But wait – what about that holistic healer? The OnlyFans model? Antoinette Lattouf? There’s too much to detail in this review. Shut Your Big Fat Mouth doesn’t necessarily feel overcrowded while watching, as Safran’s charm and quips guide you through it all effortlessly. But the through-line is a little muddled.
There’s a lot of focus on offence in Shut Your Big Fat Mouth, but less interest in identifying when offence slides into the harm that anti-hate laws are intended to prevent. It can create odd moments, such as sympathetic scenes of a Christian pastor who can no longer quote certain passages from the Bible due to Victoria’s anti-conversion therapy laws. Or the one-minute segment with Sydney restaurateur Alan Yazbek, who pled guilty in 2024 to knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol at a pro-Palestinian rally but says he holds no hatred for Jewish people.
That chat could be the basis of an entire special. It cuts to the core of the controversial question surrounding Australia’s recent anti-hate laws: what constitutes valid criticism of Israel and what is anti-Semitic? But that’s simply not the documentary Safran made. Understandable for many reasons – though it would be one of his most boundary-pushing projects yet.
Shut Your Big Fat Mouth John Safran! premieres 7.30pm May 24 on SBS and SBS On Demand.
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