Safran crucified over new TV series

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ADAM KAMIEN

COMEDIAN John Safran’s new show has caused a public outcry, even though its debut on ABC TV is still days away.

The Australian Family Association last week hit out at the show, John Safran’s Race Relations, describing it as “filth”.

In episode one of the series, in which Safran explores interracial attraction, the former Yeshivah College student donates sperm at a Palestinian sperm bank while looking at a picture of US President Barack Obama.

He also steals women’s underwear to perform “sniff tests”. In a later episode, Safran is crucified as part of a religious ritual in the Philippines.

But the scene that will likely generate the most controversy in the Jewish community involves Safran going to his mother’s grave, with a shovel and a Kabbalah prayer book to discover what she thinks of him marrying a non-Jew.

“When I was on Race Around the World and I got baptised, my grandfather, who was alive then, said ‘you’ve got to be careful because you don’t want to insult other cultures’,” Safran told The AJN this week.

“But it seems like Jews are more offended when I offend other cultures, while if I dance Footloose in a synagogue [as he did in an episode of one of his previous television series, John Safran’s Musical Jamboree] that’s OK. I tried my hardest to get crucified tastefully.”

The ABC has defended Safran, who has a longstanding relationship with the network, in the lead-up to his new series.

Safran shot to fame on the ABC’s groundbreaking documentary competition, Race Around the World, and later filmed two pilots for the national broadcaster, neither of which were ever aired.

Safran then had two successful documentary series on SBS — John Safran’s Musical Jamboree and John Safran vs God, in which he road-tested different religions.

He can also be heard weekly on Triple J, the ABC’s youth radio station, on a show he does with Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire.