Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Jonah Hill's Tough Talk About His Jiu Jitsu Skill.

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

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This is the Janko Underground Podcast number 226, sitting here with Echo Charles, who just recently failed to press record on the recorder. We got a little into the podcast before we recognize that, but we have hit Rewind mentally, and we are going to get into some questions from the front line, from the trenches. Yep. From those of you that are out there with the rubber meet the road, we will provide answers in some cases, recommendations in other cases, and at a minimum we'll give you some courses of action that you can follow. so that you can navigate whatever situation and issues you're dealing with at this time.

Yep. So let's get into it. We are recording. Yes, we are recording, confirm, double confirm. All right. For that double check. Okay, first question, Chuck, what do you think about Jonah Hill's recent statements? He seemed to be into, he seems to be into the jiu-jits,

and he seemed to be talking tough on a recent interview with some other actors. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. He said, I love Jiu-Jitsu, but my body is begging me to not love it. 42-year-old, my wife often says, you're not going to be a professional fighter. You know that, right? You're a comedian. The other actor, Jason Bateman, asked, let me ask you something. If we got into it, Jonah replied with, I would fuck you up.

I would fuck all three of you up, referring to the other actors, Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes. Jonah continues with my, he continues with my favorite. favorite thing people say oh Jonah Hill that fat guy from super bad and I'm like I would fucking annihilate you if you see me try it unless they're way bigger than me fuck around and find out okay what do you both think about this as black belts and practitioners who have competed and been in real street fights in your lifetime well Jonah Hill you know right on welcome aboard I'd say he's got the classic late white belt blue belt blue belt

maybe even early purple belt attitude of this right I can beat people up now and it's especially pronounced when people come from a background where they couldn't couldn't beat people up and kind of knew they didn't couldn't beat people up right because even like when you started training you still you before you started training you kind of had an attitude that you could beat people up no no no no no I would the the small distinction is I knew a little bit of jiu jiu jitsu technically before I started training because I took it because I in high school we got the Gracie

freaking in high school high school oh yeah you got the tapes I thought you were going to say you had some kind of program in high school no no no high school's running and I was like you could buy the tapes Gracie in action Horan Gracie yeah yeah so we knew the submissions but so technically I still could

against someone who's untrained don't know the deal which most people weren't yeah exactly right so that's I mean technically sure did I think I could fight better And I was like kind of I guess bigger and stronger or whatever and more athletic in my opinion yet but it was for a reason it wasn't I'm just not this guy who sees red no not at all Yeah I thought that I could handle myself pretty good in fights I'd been in a lot of fights when I was a kid Usually did pretty good especially when I got I got beat up a few times younger and then as I got older I got a little bit more experienced and Did a little bit better but also was just you know kind of the I got beat up a few times younger and then as I got older I got a little bit more experienced and? I got a little bit better, but also was just you know kind of the I

kind of what the like the seeing red type thing what that really means is if you strike first and go crazy like real fast like a lot of people don't want to have any problem they don't want they don't want that kind of beef right so you have confidence that you can handle yourself and so i kind of felt like that so when i got introduced jih Tzu it was more like holy crap like i don't know what the hell i'm doing Now, you take someone like Jonah Hill, who I'm assuming was not like a real fist of cuffs kind of guy, and probably was always walking around with like probably not real confident in his ability to fight, which is a lot of guys, right? You know, a lot of guys that didn't do any sports at all. Because even in sports, you get, you feel like I'm a little bit more strong than this guy. I'm a little bit faster than this guy.

I can take this guy. Like you have that feeling when you interact with other people. So I think athletics in general gives you a certain level of confidence on how you're going to do against other people. But if you never really did that, you're going to big question mark in your brain. So now when you get on the mats of justice and you start training and all of a sudden, it's like this whole paradigm shift in what you thought. Because you go, again, I'm talking about people that were unathletic or didn't participate in athletics, didn't do a lot of fighting, didn't do any fighting because their mind, they're always thinking, I'm going to get my ass kicked. So now you get this paradigm shift where you believe you can kick people's asses, right? And that's going to feel pretty good.

And that's what you feel expressed here, right? I would annihilate you, right? That's what's being expressed is that kind of that kind of influx of confidence. Because when I learned jiu-jitsu, I was like, okay, like I feel more confident now, but it wasn't a paradigm shift in what I thought. I thought I was already pretty good fighter and then I was like oh I don't know a lot but now I can handle myself even better That wasn't a paradigm shift This is a paradigm shift for a dude like Jonah Hill who goes from you know being

Anath onathletic I don't know if he's on athletic but not involved in athletics Right and I don't know what maybe he did did you do sports do you know? I don't know, but he did very specifically say oh People say the fat guy from super bad you know so it's almost like I don't know it feels like like that identity might be kind of following him around or something like this? Well, I think that insurgents of confidence, it tips the scale a little bit too much, right? And I'm not being negative about,

I'm just dealing with like explaining the reality. Yeah. It just tips the scale where people are like, oh, I'm a badass now. So after a little while, that will start to wear off and he'll start to, like, he even says, unless you're way bigger than me. Yeah. Right? Because he's had a couple big boys come in there

and kind of run game on him. He's like, well, what the hell? And pretty soon he's going to learn that also like, oh, this dude wrestled in high school. Or also this guy played, you know, D1 football or whatever. So now those become equalizers. Because when you're a white belt, blue belt and you get a guy that played D1 football, same size as you, maybe a little bit smaller? He's a problem. You really, you know, and he trained, he did six classes.

And he's a problem. Like, you might, the day one, you might catch him in a guillotine, might catch him in an arm lock. Right? If you're strong, you might catch him. But as soon as he knows, kind of keep his arms in and, you know, like, you've got a problem on your hands if you're a white belt, blue belt. So he's going to get there. He'll be a little bit more humble.

And then, you know, purple belt, he'll be a pretty humble guy. And then by, you know, a brown belt, he'll realize, I think the ultimate realization that I think is a good thing to come to is, hey, I've just been training longer this than this other person. Yeah. And it doesn't make me a better human being. It just means I've been training a little bit longer. Just like Jonah Hill would beat me at acting

because that's what he does for a living and he does it all the time. Cool. And he's going to outact a lot of people because he's just been doing it longer. That's what he does. And eventually go, oh, you know what?

Now, if you think you're a better human being because you're good at your job or you're good at something you've been done for a long time, you've been doing for a long time, that might not be the best for your mental health. It might make you a little bit arrogant. But I think he'll continue. you down the normal progression of Jiu-Jitsu, which is, oh, my gosh, I don't know anything.

To six to 18 months in, I'm actually the baddest M-Fer on the planet. To, yeah, to like the three-year mark where you're kind of like, oh, actually, there's a lot of people that are a real threat to me to, hey, you know what? This is just another part of the life and I'm really happy that I get to train and it's really fun and I and I know that it's not something that I should I don't hold it against someone. I don't look down on someone Because I can kick their ass. You know what I mean? That's kind of a that's kind of a place you need to reach in your life. Yeah It's real easy to fall into the trap right of like well, I can kick your ass so I'm kind of like a little bit better than you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because fundamentally, as an animal, as an animal in the pack, like, I can kick your ass, so therefore I'm better than you.

And you know, you might be a little bit smarter than me. You might be a little bit more witty than me, but I'll kick your ass. You know what I mean? Which if you go to like the base end of human beings, that's not what we're proud of, right? Right. We don't go, you know, oh, that guy, he might be, you know, a craft. backhead and a criminal. And his family hates him, but he can kick your house.

Like, we don't, we don't say that. Right. So at a certain point, Jonah Hill will be like, yeah, fighting is definitely a cool skill to have. It's fun. And I'm glad he's training. That's awesome. Good for him.

Keep getting after it, Jonah Hill. Yeah. And Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, you guys should start training. Yeah, yeah. That's where I recommend. Whoever those guys are. Come on, bro, Jason Bateman? Who is he in?

The man. He's in a lot of stuff. but there's one the most recent one that I really got into was Ozark was in that one but he's been in stuff

since day one check he's with yeah anyway but yeah really good anyway Jonah Hill's really good too who should who's wait was Jason Bateman

so who's Will Arnett then Will Arnette is a funny guy he was in there's you'll know him when you see him what's the most popular movie that I would recognize he was one where he was this

real smarmy back guy who has this he's kind of a comedic funny guy but he's like I guess he's kind of alpha you know like his characters you know you'd have to see him what about Sean Hayes Sean Hayes I am less familiar with Sean Hayes I know that he was I think this was like a public podcast scenario that's kind of when you think of Jonah Hill what do you think of forgetting Sarah Marshall super bad the one where they they also the one they I just go straight he's a wolf for Wall Street right yeah oh yeah to me to me I mean, he's great in all of them.

To me, bringing Sarah Marshall, bro, I don't know how, that's one of the better movies out there. Really? Yeah. What's it called?

Forgetting Sarah Marshall. What's that about? The guy, you know, he breaks up with his famous girlfriend, goes to Hawaii. Is he the star? Jonah Hill is one of the main guys, yeah.

Is he the one that broke up with his girlfriend? No, no, no, no. Who does it? What's the dude? I forget his name. He knows him.

He's one of those. He's in that group of guys that kind of do movies together. Okay. But he goes to Hawaii and then to forget about her. You know? And then freaking just by happen sense, she's there on vacation with her new boyfriend

who's Russell Brand by the way. Russell Brand. Russell Brand. Fucking Englishman, you know. Oh, yeah. Russell Brand. Oh,

Russell Brand. Yes. I don't think of, that's funny. I don't think of him. I don't think of him as being an actor in movies, but I forget that he is an actor in movies. Oh, yeah.

And it's one of his freaking greatest roles, too, ever. Like the whole movie, just the who they got for that movie. Dude, that's classic. Like, I could see they, they picked the right guy to play the ex or the new boyfriend. 100% so good and it goes as good as you think he'll be in that movie he's that good and better in that movie they actually they all are even Jonah Hill where he's he's like the waiter it's like a waiter that you know apparently move there from the mainland now he's a waiter which is such a it's a real thing yeah exactly so he's kind of the or he's like the host he's a host at a restaurant kind of a waiter I think yeah he's a waiter too and he's in there with his thing and he's like all these little side things that really have like he's like hey uh what's his name all this snow or whatever He's like, hey, Aldis, here's my demo tape. You know, like that kind of say.

It's super funny. Does Russell play like a, because he's the new boyfriend, but what's his job in real life? Is he like a famous guy or an actor or something? No. So I don't know if you know Russell Brand's kind of history in like acting and performing as weather. He's part of like a band that's, I guess, pseudo, fictitious or whatever. You know, like this, it's like a real band, but his name and his name is actual, his name, his name, Aldous Snow.

So if you ever watch Get Him to the Greek, which is another movie with Russell Brand, he's All this snow in that one as well. Oh, okay. And he's the singer of a band

and Jonah Hills in that one too. Oh, okay. So, but so he's all just snow in forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Sarah Marshall's dating all this snow, the super famous, like guys.

So anyway, it's super funny the way they did it. Did you, I think the movie is called Meet the Fockers. Yep. Meet the Fockers. Owen Wilson.

Yeah. He plays the ex-boyfriend. But it's, meet the parents the first one. Okay. Is it? Yeah. Okay. Well, that one, dude, the way that Owen Wilson, the way he portrays that character, it's

like the worst ever ex-boyfriend that you could come up against. Encounter. When he builds that, like, altar out. And he's like, yeah, it took about, you know, 2300 man hours. But, you know, I like working with my hands. Yeah. Which was pretty good. Being that it's done all by hand with one piece of wood.

Yeah. But, you know, Carpentry, you know, I always figure it's good enough for JC, it's good enough for me. I mean, that was like a nightmare for a dude to have to meet someone that's just that cool. Morris, the dad, right? The fiance's dad is like totally on board with ex-boyfriend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. He's there witnessing this whole comparison thing and he's like, Greg's a male nurse. Like, right as he says, right as he says all the thing, you know, for the comparison.

Oh, man. Another very well done kind of scenario. Classic but Jonah Hill's I'll say this it might sound crazy but hear me out Johnny Hill which I think you're agreeing with Johnny Hill is actually correct with his Feeling and opinion yeah yeah that is a hundred percent real feeling where and technically like kind it I don't know if he'd fuck these specific people We don't know that because we don't know their training we don't know you know you know the search we don't know that part of it but the feeling that you don't know if if our net was a was a state champion wrestler in Iowa which he could be. I'll tell you this.

And then Joan is going to have his hands full, kind of. Oh, yeah. You get a big strong guy who's kind of down to fight, like how you're saying, if you played sports or something. That's what it is. Like, you know how to impose yourself, regardless of skill onto someone and deal with some fatigue and just inner competition or whatever. You know how to deal with that? It's like, bro, that's another added element in any kind of match, you know? So you just don't know.

That's the point. But what he was feeling right here is 100% real. Oh, yeah. A four-strike white belt or even like a. a new blue belt or whatever. And now you're looking at all your other peers in your other industry that's not known for being these hardcore guys. Yeah, yeah.

You're looking at him like, bro, I would kill all you guys. That's literally how it feels. And I would say for the most part, not all the time, but for the most part, true. Yeah. And so I remember when I was a, yeah, white belt, like a four stripe-ish. We didn't do stripes. But, you know, I had been in it for a while or whatever, maybe three quarters of the way to Blue Belt, we'll say.

And, oh, yeah, my brothers, freaking my co-striking. my coworkers, bro, I was like, bro, let's, yeah, 100%. Oh, yeah. And we'll go at the drop of a dime. Looking for it. Exactly right. Ready and down and hoping. Yeah.

Hoping. Oh, yeah. So this feeling is 100% correct. 100% correct. But you're right. Like when you have that new power, you know, it's kind of like when you have a new, I don't know, anything. You got a new lawnmore.

You're looking at everybody's lawn. That's why, that's why like when Rogan or Eddie Bravo talks about like the, the nerd assassins, right? This happens because people that get into Jiu-Jitsu, but they weren't really into anything else before. Like when a dude's a wrestler and then he starts doing Jiu-Jitsu, he doesn't get this influx, this overpressure of feeling like I can kick people's ass now.

But if you were just a nerd and then all of a sudden, you, within three months, you realize, like within three months there's a new guy that comes in that was a wrestler that used to bully you around and now you put him in a triangle choke, and he has to tap out, like that's got to be, it's got to be an insurgents of power. Oh, yeah.

Where it's gonna, you end up saying some shit like, I will fucking annihilate you. Oh, yeah. 100%. And now, and consider the question, right? And Jason Bainment, obviously, if you know his personality and because I did see the video, he didn't ask it like, what up? You think you could take me?

Because that's a typical question too, right? You say, oh, I did you think you could take me? That's like confrontational. So that feeling, now hold on to that right there. Jason Bainman said if we were to get into it, right? Let me ask you something. If we were to get into it, that's kind of like, could you take me? But the way he asked was kind of like more out of curiosity.

Like, hey, like where does this kind of stand as far as actual capability goes? That was kind of the question. But as that four-strike white belt, bro, I'm waiting for somebody to ask me that question. And I'm going to take it like, hey, like that's a challenge. So that made him be more aggressive with his answer in my opinion. Where it's like you think it mean you were to get into it. That's like, oh, what? And I don't know, again, I don't know Jason Bateman and Will Ornette and Sean Hayes personally.

And maybe they are more engaged in the fight community than I think. But as we've said before, a lot of people, when you say, oh, I train jiu-jitsu, they just think you do karate. Yeah, yeah. They just think karate. And they're like, oh, you can break some wood stuff. And sometimes people are actually impressed by that. Like Jason Bateman, again, I don't know him. But he might be like, oh, damn, so you can like break woods.

I'd hate it if he punched me in the face. You know what I mean? Yep, yeah, 100%. And so he's kind of like, wait, if we got into it, would you break my face? Because he's thinking you can do a karate kick to my face now. Right, exactly. Like what would happen?

In fact, I would actually, now that you kind of put it that way, you're right, because that's kind of what it sounded. Like, it was more out of curiosity. Like, you do jiu-jitsu, but what is jiu-jitsu? Like, so is it, are we fighting? Or is it Tai Chi? Or is it capoeira, you know, more of a dance scenario that is fighting, you know? Like, that's the tone that I got from it.

But like I said, bro, you're that four-strike, what? Well, don't matter. It's all the same. It's all the same question. Like, what up? You know, kind of a thing. So to me, that's what made Jonah Hill. And I get it, bro.

Fuck, I'm with you. To be honest, I kind of felt it. I was like, bro, fucking Jonah Hill, let him know. You see what I'm saying? Not because I like, because I like Jason Bateman. But I'm like, hey, I felt that too. No, no, no. You just like his personality from what you're seeing.

I'm a fan of Jason Bateman, 100%. But that feeling that Jonah Hill was feeling that it looked like he was feeling there and demonstrated was 100% real, 100%. accurate and I would venture to say that most of us in the Jiu-Jitsu community have gone through this feeling or gone through this phase of feeling this. The only part that I think maybe sparked the controversy is that he said it. Aggressive. He is.

Aggressively in public. Like on a public forum. You see what I'm saying? And you know, you get everyone else who's whether they've been through that phase or not. It's kind of like, okay, that was kind of a challenge to us a little bit, to me personally a little bit. I would annihilate you. What was the, like, what was the feeling from the jiu jitoo community?

I felt like it was kind of everywhere. Like some people were saying what I was saying, where I was like, yeah, brother, that's how you feel when you're a four-st-street-weight belt. Or not even just the j-jit. What was the feeling from the world? Yeah, yeah. Where people like, what's this guy? Who do you think he can take Jason Bateman?

Yeah. No way. Jonah Hill is. So my algorithm is more jiu-jitsu people and not necessarily the Hollywood people. as much, but the jujitsu people were somewhere like, oh, I'm challenging Jonah Hill, I'm a white belt, I'm a blue belt or whatever, I saw some of that. I was like,

brother, you're missing the point here, but I get it, I get that feeling too. Because let's face it, especially when you're blue belt, I think blue belt is kind of the purple belt, that's when you start to hit that maturity, whatever, but late blue belt, early purple belt, if you hear that some celebrity does jujitsu, oh, I'm, you know, remember like,

who's like kind of the main ones? Like there was a Ashton Coucher, Sean Patrick Flannery, like the famous guys who do Jiu-Jitsu. All of us were at the very least wondering, oh bro, I think I could take him. He's just an actor kind of a thing. You know, like that's like a common like kind of thought you might have or you see a, I don't know, anybody famous, right?

You want to see, ooh, how's this famous guy's jiu-jitsu stack up against my- Is it for real? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it for real? Yeah, I think that's part of like the Jiu-Jitsu experience, I think. I was training with Sloan one day and he was like, after like we've been training together for maybe like a year or two but you were just talking I

forgot that trade he goes he was honestly bro I don't mean this in a bad way but like when I first trade with you I didn't think you were going to be that good yeah that's probably okay cool yeah I'll take that as a compliment yeah oh yeah and that's exactly the point you know it's because yeah you're this you're a navy seal right or you're a leadership got or author or a xyzor or whatever is you'm saying and then so you just kind of wonder I think I think that's natural is what I'm saying I'm not necessarily saying that like we all have that very strong feeling I'm just saying it's natural

to think that or whatever so there I think I saw some of that reaction it's awesome you know obviously some hate me like oh he's an actor or whatever is jujitsu probably sucks or oh calm down or whatever and I personally think that that's maybe just us forgetting that that's a real part of the

jiu jiu jitsu journey yeah it's also forgetting that he's a dude. He's a person who's got the normal person things going on in the world. Exactly right. So even remember Mark Zuckerberg was on, I don't know, maybe Theo Vaughn. He's on one of these podcasts where he was like, you know, I, it's like, what do you do as a hobby, whatever? And he said, I do jiu-jitsu, you know, it's just something about waking up and choking

people, you know? Like he said that. But it's like, oh, I noticed, and, bro, I'm with you. I noticed that's how you put it, waking up and just choking people. That's not what Jiu-Jitsu is, bro. It's freaking, actually you choke people about eight to 10% of the time on a good day. The rest, you're freaking hoping you don't get choked, getting choked, getting your, you know, it's like there's a lot to it. But it's kind of like we put forward this super capable version of our jiu-jitsu, you know, of our jiu-jitsu experience or whatever.

And to me, that's natural, bro. Like, so yeah, when you're on stage and someone's like, you know, what's your hobby? And you got this new, not only a hobby, superpower. straight up superpower and you get to say it and whatever and it's new and then someone low-key challenges it brother this is what you're gonna get

100% of the time this is it if I was on the stage in that position that's what probably would have came out of me too I think but yeah right on right all good I'm with you brother like freaking

more people doing jiu-jitsu more people going through the experience brats it's a good one keep getting out you don't want to challenge Jonah Hill no good to go keep training brother Keep training everybody.

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