Published: 7 October 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Safran says more people are offended to be left off his list than upset by his public stunt.
Religion has always been a rich source of material for satirist, TV presenter and author John Safran – and this holy day is no exception. For the past five years or so he’s been posting a “Yom Kippur list” on social media.
Rather than a list of people he’s humbly asking forgiveness from, it’s a list of people he feels have wronged him, with demands that they beg for his
This time he’s pushed the annual tradition to a whole new level and taken out a big digital billboard at the corner of Smith and Gertrude streets in Fitzroy, designed by David Art Wales. It’s up until October 10.
Safran told Broadsheet : “I get a few apologies, but I get way more people who are annoyed they’ve been left off the list. People are offended I haven’t roasted them. They’ve definitely asked what they have to do to be shamed by me next year.”
Among his targets are:
- Barking japoodles (Jewish Australian Princess poodles) in Caulfield Park
- Jeremy Weinstein and his three loud-mouthed children
- Lobbyist Mark Leibler for failing to chuckle when I described his fans as Beleiblers
- Melbourne Jewish Book Week for snubbing me even though I am a Melbourne Jew who has written three books
- Beekeepers from Chevra Kosher Honey (Kosher? What, you circumcise the bees?)
- Masterchef Alice Zaslavsky for her borscht with no potato recipe
- The black SUV parked outside Glick’s Bagels with the “INFIDEL” plates
- Alleged artist Avraham Vofski for painting me fat in the Archibald Prize (Editor: Vofsi has his own cause for offence: Safran has misspelt his name.)
- Left-wing academics who be like “Ashkenazi Jews are problematic (for being white), Mizrachi Jews are problematic (for appropriating Arab culture), the only non-problematic Jew in the world is this one Jewish Pygmy in the Congo.”
- Raph Mengem for seeking me out as a father figure because his own father (correctly) finds him infuriating
- Alma Street Pickles for sending me a freebie jar with – what they admitted – had already been opened with one pickle eaten
- Classic Cinema for the caved-in choc top you refused to replace
- Caulfield Jews whose grandparents escaped Nazi occupied Europe on a rickety boat but won’t drive northside because it’s too much hassle.
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“You Have All Offended Me”: John Safran’s Hilarious New Billboard Demands Dozens of Prominent Melbourne Jews Beg for His Forgiveness (Broadsheet)
Photo: Safran with his billboard (Twitter)
