Vince Vaughn has taken aim at late night television, arguing that an increasingly political tone has driven audiences away and contributed to the genre’s declining popularity.
Vaughn, who has previously described himself as a political “libertarian,” made the comments on MAGA-friendly comedian Theo Von’s podcast this week.
During the episode, Von pointed out that Hollywood is a “liberal place,” to which Vaughn replied, “But not really. It’s more like, ‘We’re smart and got it figured out, and if you don’t agree then you’re an idiot.’”
He continued, “There was definitely a culture that if you didn’t agree with these ideas, you were looked at as bad.”
“A lot of the late shows have struggled,” Von pointed out. “Because the only person they could make fun of at a certain point was just like white redneck kind of people. And it f***ing tanked [ratings].”
The Wedding Crashers star agreed: “See, they never get it right. The podcasts have gotten so much more popular with less production, less writers [and] less staff, because people want authenticity. And I think that the talk shows, to a large part, became really agenda-based.”
“They were gonna evangelize people to what they thought,” he continued, “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 a fucking class I didn’t want to take.”
“They all became so about their politics and who’s good and who’s bad,” the Couples Retreat actor added. “Imagine sitting next to someone like that on a f***ing plane. You’d be like, how do I get out of this f***ing seat?”
Vaughn has previously stated that he isn’t aligned with the Republican or Democratic parties.
“I definitely am a believer more in allowing individuals to make choices,” he told The New York Times in 2024. “So I think that drugs should be legal and people should have guns.”
“I’d rather say let people make their choices, and they can make different choices and have the consequences of their choices,” he added.
He faced backlash last year after posing for a photo with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House.
Asked by Von if he ever felt “ostracized” in Hollywood, Vaughn responded: “I always got along with people… and try to be honest about who I am. I have opinions on both sides [of the political aisle].”
He said his early relationships in Hollywood were not affected by politics because “we weren’t 23 sitting around talking about fucking taxes.”
He added, “If you’re constantly worried what someone else thinks of you and you’re only around them a couple hours a day, you’re miserable most of the time. You’ve got to find the way to be yourself, but be respectful.”
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