Shanks's channel is primarily focused on comedy videos and political commentary, often in support of the
Labor Party and critical of the
Liberal and
National (
Coalition) parties. He has self-described his commentary as focusing on "lowbrow humour". Shanks created his YouTube channel in 2013 after being unable to find appealing work in traditional media. His initial videos consisted of
skits, uploading his first political video, a satirical analysis of the
2013 Australian federal election, in September 2013. The video went
viral, and from that point he began considering moving his content to focus on politics.
2016–2022: Miscellaneous In 2016, he campaigned against the
Sydney lockout laws. In 2020,
The Daily Telegraph journalist
Joe Hildebrand made a complaint to
New South Wales police accusing Shanks of stalking and harassment. The police laid no charges. In July 2021, Shanks released an hour-long self-produced documentary entitled ''Blood Water: the war for Australia's water
, discussing floodplain harvesting in rural New South Wales and particularly Riverina. In the video the practice of floodplain harvesting was described as "water theft". In 2022, Shanks interviewed Twitter commentator PRGuy who revealed himself to be Jeremy Maluta, circumventing an attempt by far-right provocateur Avi Yemini to identify the owner of the account through legal action. In May 2022, Shanks made a cameo appearance as a current affairs reporter in an episode of Housos,
which was titled "The Thong Warrior". He also voiced several minor characters in the animated television series Koala Man'' in January 2023.
2019–2020: Bushfires In 2019 and 2020, Shanks released multiple videos alleging that the then
New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian was one of the main people responsible for increasing the risk of bushfires and the destruction of the
koala population in Australia. He created the
Twitter hashtag #koalakiller, in reference to Berejiklian. On 10 June 2020, Shanks released an interview with
New South Wales Opposition Leader Jodi McKay, discussing topics including the state and federal governments' response to the
2019–20 Australian bushfire season, including widespread deaths of animals. Shanks raised $300,000 for bushfire relief from his stand-up shows and sales of #koalakiller t-shirts.
2019: Clive Palmer In 2019, Shanks published a video covering businessman
Clive Palmer who was running in the
2019 Australian federal election. There were existing allegations of financial irregularity in the liquidation of Palmer's company
Queensland Nickel and alleged failure to pay the company's workers, which Shanks covered, alongside satirising Palmer's behaviour and appearance. In response, Palmer threatened a defamation lawsuit, demanding and that Shanks cease making public statements about him. Shanks said he would not "capitulate" and released merchandise containing the statements in question. Other commentators said that Palmer's legal threat was substantially similar to a
SLAPP suit and that such threats had a 'chilling effect' on public interest reporting.
2020–2022: John Barilaro In a political commentary video uploaded 29 June 2020, Shanks included an impersonation of
John Barilaro,
Deputy Premier of New South Wales, which Barilaro described as "very offensive" and "full of racist undertones". Shanks subsequently filmed a video inside a rental property owned by Barilaro, accusing him of corruption and environmental vandalism. In May 2021 Shanks published a letter sent by Barilaro in December of a threat to sue for
defamation. In response, Shanks turned up dressed as the video game character
Luigi at a
National Party event at
Macquarie University where Barilaro was giving a speech. Barilaro lodged defamation proceedings against Shanks on 27 May 2021. On 8 July, Shanks's legal team responded by filing a
truth defence, supported by an
honest opinion defence for a subset of claims. Langker was charged with two counts of
stalking and intimidating Barilaro after Langker had approached Barilaro at a National Party event with Shanks and on another occasion, where Langker had approached Barilaro while Langker was heading to his university. This contradicted what Barilaro had earlier told
Sky News Australia host Tom Connell, saying that he had not requested the FPU become involved in the matter. In October 2021 John Barilaro resigned as Deputy Premier of New South Wales and as the member for
Monaro, citing his defamation case against Shanks as a "big reason" for the decision. In November 2021, Barilaro settled the defamation case with Shanks, and Shanks issued the following apology: "Mr Shanks accepts that some of the videos he posted were offensive to Mr Barilaro. Mr Shanks understands that Mr Barilaro has been hurt, and apologises to him for that hurt." Shanks was required to pay $100,000 in legal costs and Barilaro received no damages from the settlement. Shanks agreed to edit some of the contested videos, which would remain online, and to stop selling merchandise featuring Barilaro after Barilaro's retirement from politics. As of 10 March 2022, the NSW Police dropped all charges against Langker. On 6 June 2022, the Federal Court awarded Barilaro $715,000 in defamation damages from Google for the YouTube videos, and referred Shanks and Google for possible prosecution for contempt of court.
2020–2023: ClubsNSW In 2020,
Troy Stolz was a compliance officer employed by gambling
lobby group
ClubsNSW. Stolz contacted journalists and federal MP
Andrew Wilkie, alleging that clubs in NSW were engaged in widespread non-compliance with anti-
money laundering laws. Following this, ClubsNSW terminated Stolz' employment. Stolz sued for
unfair dismissal and ClubsNSW counter-sued for unlawful use of confidential information. In February 2023, ClubsNSW discontinued all legal action against Shanks and Stolz. The withdrawal of the court cases came after the chief executive of ClubsNSW, Josh Landis, was sacked. Police launched investigations into two attempts to burn down Shanks's house in
Bondi Beach: one attempt on 17 November 2022, which mistakenly targeted his next-door neighbour; and another on 23 November 2022, which successfully burned down his home. In a statement, Shanks's lawyers stated that his home had been "firebombed", and that he was not home at the time of the attacks. In December 2023, Tufi Junior Tauese-Auelua, an associate of the
Alameddine crime network was arrested by police and charged with two counts of
destroying or damaging property by fire. The NSW police stated that there was a "strong possibility" the attack was retaliation for Shanks's video alleging links between the Alameddine crime network and the Coronation Property Group. Friendlyjordies producer Kristo Langker reported to police that
ABC reporter Mahmood Fazal repeatedly informed him in January 2024 that he had been communicating with "very serious gang figures" who were threatening that "something bad is going to happen" if the "Coronation" video was not deleted from YouTube. In February 2024, Shanks subsequently removed the video from his channel, citing non-specific death threats as the reason. In October 2025, messages allegedly from
Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal were leaked showing death threats directed at Shanks. When asked, Fazal claimed that the messages expressing his desire to "kill" Shanks had been falsified, while others were taken out of context. == Political views ==