The Josh Innes Show - Vince Vaughn Drops Bombs On Late Night Hosts

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

I'm pretty much bored of the conversation about late night hosts. They tell you where they stand. You know where they stand. Who cares at this point? But, it's interesting when someone like Vince points this out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. All right, let's see here. So Vince Vaughn was on the Theo Vaughn.

podcast, which I don't really get into. I don't, Theo Vaughn's one of those people I don't really have anything against, but I don't really know what I'm listening to. So I don't know if it's a bit or if this is, if this is really this dude. And I'm just not a fan of a lot of these Rogan comedians anyway. Like I really, I don't like Joe Rogan as a stand-up. I listen to the podcast sometimes. But as far as podcasts go, like I'll get into certain podcasts for a week.

And then I won't listen to him again forever. Like there's nothing that I just consistently listen to week in, week out, like that I cannot miss. Now, that'll be the case for a week or it might be about a subject matter. Like I was religiously listening to my buddy Matt's podcast during all the Lane Kiffin shit and all the Brian Kelly shit. But like I had to hear what was going on because I know he has the insights. And if something big is happening, I know he's got the insights because he knows people. But I don't have to listen to Matt on a day and day out basis. There's nobody that I have to just listen to, right?

And there are shows I like, more so I've been listening to books, you know, like audio books and books about media and shit like that when I go on walks with Ross for two hours, you know, every day. That's what I listen to. More so than I listen to podcast. But I don't really have any shows that I have to hear. Like this, and maybe that's kind of part of the problem with there being so many options. Everything kind of sounds the same. There's nothing that really stands out. Maybe that's me being salty as fuck.

But nothing really stands out. because everybody's doing basically the same shit. So it's not like I have to, like, I have to seek something out. There's nobody whose opinion I must get. There's nobody who's, who's shit I need to hear. That said,

Vince Vaughn was on this Theo Vaughn podcast. Actually, the moral thing about I don't fucking like Theo Vaughn. I don't. Like, I don't get it. So, you know what? Maybe I'm a fucking idiot. But I'm not going to pussyfoot around it because some asshole told me that I'm salty.

so apparently you can't have opinions on shit because that makes you salty? Well, I don't fucking like Theo Vaughn. I tried. I don't fucking get it. Is it a bit? Are you really a fucking dip shit or are you just playing a dips shit

on your fucking podcast? Either way, I don't really like it. Either playing a dip shit, I'm like, nah, I don't really like it. And if you really are a fucking dip shit, I really don't like it. Oh, but Josh, you're just jealous because he's got honest,

fuck yeah, I'm jealous and he's got a huge audience and money. Who wouldn't be? It's the dumbest fucking argument any human can make. oh you're just mad because he's got all sorts of money i'm not mad because he's got money like i don't fault anybody for advanced like there's nobody that i will fault and rip for making money doing anything if they have an audience they have an audience but i'm not like i try to sit here and just be kind of like level-headed about it like i don't

mind theo v i fucking hate the ovan and that actually feels fucking nice like look i don't think any money should come out of his pocket or anything like that he has an audience I just don't fucking get it. There's a lot of people who I just don't fucking get. Bussing with the boys. Like, who gives a fuck? Like, there are so many of these former athlete podcasters that have nothing to say.

They just bro it up on a fucking podcast and people lop the shit up. But for some reason, Theo Vaughn is one I really hate. Like, I don't hate Rogan. And actually, like, a lot of the times on his podcast, like, there's a lot of people on there that I find interesting. There have been some really interesting conversations on his podcast that I've enjoyed.

I fucking hate Theo Vaughn. And I imagine I'm not alone here. But like, it's funny, I guarantee you people that would like Theo Vaughan would tell you shit like, yeah, remember that they would hate fake characters. Like, I remember when everybody hated Larry the cable guy? And it was a big deal that Larry the cable guy

really wasn't Larry, nor was he a cable guy. And they've unearthed all these old stand-up videos of him wearing like silk shirts in the late 80s doing stand-up. like, this guy's a fraud. Like I look at Theo Vaughn and I'm like, this guy's a fucking act. And I don't like the act. I find the act to be annoying.

But whatever. More power to him. You know, make your dollars. And if you have an audience, more fucking power to you, bro. I'm all about that. But anyway, Vince Vaughn was on this Theo Vaughn podcast. And let's do this. Let's play a couple commercials.

And then let's listen to Vince Vaughn's thoughts. on, um, on the declining state of late night television, which I don't know why this is a topic. Like, I feel like this thing's been beaten to fucking death. Like, am I the only one here that's like, we get it. They're super woke. There's no mystery. There is no mystery here. The people on late night television tell you they are super woke and then, and if you're not,

they fucking hate you. Like, I don't know why this is some big debate anymore. These shows have no real power. or nobody gives a fuck about them, yet people still talk about them. But let's see what Vince Vaughn had to say after these words. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything.

Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder any time. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. All right, here we go.

Vince Vaughn with Theo Vaughn here. Here we go. A lot of the late shows have struggled. Because all they did during like, all they did, the only person they can make fun of at a certain point was just like white, redneck kind of people

and it fucking tanked and then everything tanked after that. Again, they're not wrong. It's just kind of a tired topic at this point. Right? Like, we know what it is. Like, it's not like there's some big mystery. Like Jimmy Kimmel's not going to come out tomorrow and be like, no, I love everybody.

No, this is the world. Jimmy Kimmel will just walk out and tell you how much he fucking hate you if you're not on his side. That's what these people do. Howard Stern has literally said he hate, and this is not a late night show, but Howard Stern has literally said he hates you if you voted for Trump. He has said this. So, I mean, like I get that that's the conversation and conversations are conversations. But this is nothing new.

This isn't some new big thing that, oh my God, can you believe that these guys are super woke? Yeah, I can. because we've known it forever and they don't deny it. Think about that. But see, they never get it right. The podcast. Also, I love Vince Vaughn.

He made some shitty movies for a stretch. Don't care. I adore Vince Vaughn. There's a lot of guys from certain areas that like, I'm just kind of like, I don't get into you anymore. Like, I don't fuck with Will Farrell. Like, I try, and I feel that Will Ferrell just,

like, I don't really laugh at anything Will Ferrell does. That's not to say I haven't laughed at shit he used to do. the guy had a stretch where he was a fucking stud. But like Will Farrell's one of those guys that I got kind of bored with it. And I'm just, I don't like, I'm not into him. Like Vince Vaughn, I like Vince Vaughn. Like I enjoy Vince Vaughn even when he makes shitty movies. I never turned on Vince Vaughn.

And maybe I didn't see all of those shitty movies. But I've always been a Stan. I'm a Vince Vaughn Stan. I cut for Vince Vaughn. That's my fucking dude. So, and when I got that chance to bump into him, in New Orleans. It was a huge deal because I love Vince Vaughn. He's one of those dudes I'll never dislike. Not to say I dislike guys like Will Ferrell. I just like I get annoyed when I see Will

Farrell now. Like I don't laugh when I see Will Ferrell or or I don't feel any kind of way about Will Ferrell. But like Vince Vaughn, I see him. I'm like, I fucking love this guy. Like I would cut for this guy. I don't feel that same way about Will Ferrell. I've gotten so much more popular with less production, less riders, left staff. Oh, yeah. The reason why is... Two people working here, and both of them are hung over. One guy has shingles.

But the place is clean. I like that. You keep a clean player. Thank you. Yeah, we did a vacuum. But, uh... Again, is he a bit or not? I think that's why I dislike Theo Vaughn.

Like, I think I hate Theo Vaughn because I don't know if it's a bit or not. Like, are you playing dumb redneck or are you legitimately dumb redneck? Because every time I've tried to listen, he asks questions. They're not stupid questions in the sense that like, oh, I can't believe he asked that. But like, parts of the question, like the answer is so obvious. And I'll be like, well, how do you not know that? And that annoys me. Yeah, because people want authenticity.

Yeah. And I think, okay, people want authenticity. I don't know that I believe. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I don't buy, like I were like, hey, it's authenticity. Here's Theo Vaughn. I just find it hard to believe. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I don't buy this guy at all. but okay fine. I think that the talk shows, to a large part, became really agenda-based. Yeah. They were going to evangelical people to what they thought. You know what I mean? And so people just rejected it because it didn't feel authentic.

It felt like they had an agenda. It stopped being funny, and it started feeling like I was in fucking a class I didn't want to take. But if you look at what- I will say this. It's kind of refreshing to hear somebody like Vince Vaughn say this. You know, it's one thing to say or to hear that from, you know, like a Clay Travis, like, okay,

hear it every fucking five minutes from you, Clay Travis, piss off, like, or, or the guys at Outkick or the guys at Fox or that doofist that hosts that late night show on Fox News or, like, certain people you hear this, like, if Michael Barry says it, you're like, okay, I've heard this before, like I get it. Like Vince Vaughn, I don't know what Vince Vaughn's politics are in real talk, I would have assumed he was just some guy

that's super woke because he's a Hollywood guy. Like, these are the kind of guys that it's refreshing. I have no idea who he votes for. And nor do I give a shit. But he's saying, like, I enjoy that we got somebody right there that's saying exactly what most human beings think, which is, stop trying to take me to fucking school, Jimmy Kimmel. I don't know, whatever these other, whoever these other dofuses are, Stephen Colbert. Stop lecturing me. Thank you.

So it is refreshing to hear Vince Vaughn say that. So while I still find the topic to be tired, I at least can go, hey, I respect that. you know, Vince Vaughn is someone saying this, who we don't normally hear these things from. He doesn't seem to have any sort of agenda. He's not like some guy who's out there super stumping for right-wing maga shit like James Woods used to do before James Woods apparently left the Republican Party

or whatever the fuck he did. Like it is a refreshing thing. It's a new voice to hear this from, and that is refreshing. Talk shows and why their ratings are low, it's got only to do with the fact of what you just said, which is they all became the same show. Yeah. And they all became so about their politics and who's good and who's bad.

And it's like, imagine sitting next to someone like that on a fucking plane. Oh, bro, you'd be like, how do I get out of this fucking seat? I would fart right next to it. Holy cow. You fart your way out of it. I would. Oh, I would for sure. And I'm sorry.

You know the skunk. See. Okay. The reason to me that's more credible than Greg Gutfeld saying this shit or somebody with an agenda. Like, I don't know what the fuck Vince Vaughn's agenda is. I don't know what's going on in Vince Vaughn's life. I don't care about his politics or anything. And I know that that wasn't the whole gist of that conversation,

but that's the thing that people have clipped that's, you know, gone viral from that is Vince Vaughn saying it's the same fucking show. It is. You know, I was when I was out walking Ross, I mean, I talk I walk Ross three hours a day. Yesterday we walked to combine eight miles over the course of two separate walks. We just walk. I'm like the Forrest Gump before. walking. I just fucking walk, you know. And I'm listening to one of the old books about, you know,

the late night shows and Letterman and Leno and people were so baffled that Leno beat Letterman all those years because Letterman is such a smarter comedian and they're probably right. But there's something about appealing to having mass appeal and now people just don't really give a shit about it. They don't care about having mass appeal. They just want to appeal to the right audience for them. I mean, if you're Jimmy Kimmel and you're going to make $15 million a year, whether you're ratings are good or bad, then go out there and appeal to the people that are on the right side of history, right? That's all we care about is being on the right side of history. I got a tweet from somebody right before I got on here tonight that was like, so I said something

about Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern and how, like, it should be studied how these guys basically exploited the every man to get themselves where they are. And then the second they got to where they abandoned that entire idea of being the every man and now they're playing grab ass in the fucking hamptons with people to which lazy person who by the way their politics are obvious because you click on their their political their twitter and everything is like anti-Trump which again I don't give a fuck if that's what you believe I don't like Trump so who gives a fuck right but um I look at their stuff and I'm like you're just mad because you feel like you have to defend people like Jimmy Kimmel that's where I'm different than you.

you. I don't feel beholden to, like my mind doesn't go to a place where I'm like, I got to defend these guys because this guy attacked something I, the people who agree with me politically, so I've got to attack this guy and say you, his point was you wish you had this, his career. Sure, who wouldn't have? Who wouldn't have wanted to be hundreds of millions of dollars? Of course I fucking would. That's a dumb thing to say, no shit, Sherlock. But two things can be true. I'd gladly take hundreds of millions of dollars and Howard Stern's a stone cold fucking sellout and not just a sellout, but he's someone who misled people for decades about who he was. And then the second he got to where he truly wanted to be, he told all those people to fucking eat shit.

I don't know how any, I don't know how there's a human that listens to Howard Stern and takes him seriously. The only people who could possibly listen to Howard Stern and take him seriously are that dude who's like retweeting people's politics that agree with him and anti-Trump. Like you agree with him and you care what he has to say only because he's someone who agrees with you politically. You are aligned politically with him. Therefore, you'll defend him. There's a lot of people who's money, if we're just looking at career and money, there's a lot of people whose money I would take who are on the other side. I'd take Clay Travis's money today, and I don't like him at all. I'd take his cash all fucking day. So what's your point? Like, what point are we trying to convey

here? What are we trying to prove here? Like, what do you, did you get me? Did you get me? Did you, uh, did you, they gotcha. Got you there, pal. Boy, you sure did. You bit my ass over. You gave it to me good there, chief. Jimmy Kimmel's another one. I was listening to this book. And now when you look at what Jimmy Kimmel is now, it's funnier. So this book that came out, I guess it would have been in 2010, 2011 sometime around there about the whole thing with Leno versus Conan, which Conan's another guy like, like, I know that this is like a weird, like 15 year old topic. but my God, the sympathy this guy got because he basically just walked off a show

that he was getting paid $15 million a year to do and he became this martyr was such a pathetic thing. But anyway, so I'm listening to this audio book and they're talking about Jimmy Kimmel and how Kimmel ended up getting on late night. The executives at ABC felt that Kimmel kind of had this every man.

He was in every man that John Stewart. It was between Kimmel and John Stewart to get that show on ABC when it debuted like an 05 or 06, whenever that was. Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Midnight show. And it was between him and John Stewart. And Kimmel got the gig. And part of the reason was,

and at the time Stewart was doing the Daily Show as well, and he was trying to get into the network show. And part of the reason why Kimmel got the gig is because all of the network guys were like, he's got an everyman quality. He feels kind of like an every man. Now you look at the guy, and he wouldn't piss on the every man if he were on fire.

All it shows you is that, you know, you do one thing to get where you need to go, and then once you get where you really want to be, which is playing grab ass with Seth Rogen, it's like, fuck that, fuck all these other people. The idea that there was a time that people were like, you know what, this Jimmy Kimmel is the every man. Like, that's hard to believe.

It's just looking at what we know now, that is something that is hard to fathom that we would have looked at Jimmy Kimmel as the Everyman when now he's just a smarmy cockbag. But there was a time. You know, who deserves credit is Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy Fallon at least is someone who has never really abandoned

what he was. He don't want to get into the weeds with these guys like Colbert. Maybe he's a mental midget compared to Colbert and just doesn't want to fight that fight. But there is something to be said about trying to appeal to the mainstream. But that makes you a bad guy if you do that. But anyway, more to come.