Vince Vaughn isn’t holding back when it comes to his thoughts on modern late-night television. The actor laid out a very specific argument about when he says the shows "stopped being funny."
During a recent appearance on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, the Dodgeball actor took aim at what he sees as a major shift in late-night TV. It's something that has spread throughout comedy in recent years, according to Vaughn.
“The talk shows, to a large part, became really agenda-based,” he said. “They were going to [evangelize] people to what they thought." He continued, contending that the approach used by late-night TV is turning people off. "And so people just rejected it because it didn’t feel authentic. It felt like they had an agenda.”
And when it comes to hosts sharing their political ideology more than telling jokes, Vaughn draws the line. “It stopped being funny, and it started feeling like I was in a f***ing class I didn’t want to take. I’m getting scolded.”
Instead, Vaughn favors an approach that targets everyone evenly. It's a similar philosophy used by Tonight Show icon Jay Leno, who has also suggested late-night could dial back the political commentary.
However, it may be too late to save the genre. At least, that's what Vaughn thinks as more late-night shows have come off the board. The actor isn't buying the excuse that it's all due to changing technology, streaming services, or anything else other than the material.
“If you look at what happened to the talk shows and why their ratings are low, it’s got only to do with the fact ... they all became the same show,” Vaughn continued. “They all became so about their politics and who’s good and who’s bad.”
There’s no denying that today’s biggest hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers have leaned heavily into political commentary, particularly during the era of Donald Trump. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyers are almost completely based on reacting to the day's political headlines and spotlighting each host's opinion.
That marks a clear contrast to earlier generations of hosts like Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien, who, while not apolitical, generally took a broader, less overtly partisan approach to comedy.
Vince Vaughn's late-night TV future
Vaughn’s comments also raise an interesting question: will he continue making late-night appearances at all? That would be a shame for fans. The actor has long been one of the more reliably entertaining guests in late-night, known for quick wit and unpredictable storytelling.
Interestingly, Vaughn has appeared more frequently on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon than any other late-night program over the past decade. Fallon’s comparatively apolitical style may offer a more comfortable fit for Vaughn’s comedic (and political) sensibilities.
By comparison, his visits elsewhere have been few and far between. Vaughn hasn’t appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2017, made just one appearance on Meyers’ show in 2016, and has never sat down with Colbert on The Late Show after making plenty of visits when Letterman ran the show.
If Vaughn truly feels late-night has “stopped being funny,” those trends may not change anytime soon. The actor is entitled to his opinion, but so too are the late-night hosts. And that group definitely isn't changing anytime soon.