Watch: Jay Leno Reveals Why He Stopped Telling Trans Jokes

Jay Leno recently told Bill Maher why he stopped using transgender people as the butt of his jokes. Maybe Maher will take note.

Leno made the reveal during a July 31 appearance on Maher's podcast "Club Random with Bill Maher," The Hollywood Reporter detailed.

Ushering in the anecdote by saying, "I am a huge believer in low self-esteem," Leno explained that during his time on "The Tonight Show," which he hosted from 1992 - 2009 and then again from 2010 - 2014, he solicited feedback from everyone who worked on the show. Upon hearing that a joke he had made about trans people had offended a lower-level staffer – a "guy in the basement," as Leno put it – he decided to "go down to see him and he explained the situation."

After hearing the man's views, Leno promised him, "you'll never hear another transgender joke from me again."

Added the comedian: "He was so taken by the fact that he could bring this show to a screeching halt because of his one complaint," and complimented the staffer as "the greatest lighting guy or sound guy, whatever he did, that we had."

THR recalled another notable mea culpa from Leno, when the former late night host had "a 2021 conversation with Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) leader Guy Aoki" in which "Leno addressed his perpetuation of stereotypes about North Korea and Koreans" and acknowledged that he'd been wrong to do so.

"At the time, there was a prevailing attitude that some group is always complaining about something, so don't worry about it," Leno said. "Whenever we received a complaint, there would be two sides to the discussion: either 'We need to deal with this' or 'Screw 'em if they can't take a joke.'"

"Too many times I sided with the latter even when in my heart I knew it was wrong."

But no longer.

Perhaps Maher will take inspiration from the comedian. As previously reported, Maher prompted concern and outrage last May when he echoed right-wing anti-trans talking points on "Real Time with Bill Maher," calling the growing number of younger people who identify as LGBTQ+ a "trend" and feeding into the current anti-trans rhetoric by parroting notions that children who express a gender identity not in agreement with their physiology are not to be taken at their word. Maher dismissed sound, well-understood medical science around the treatment of transgender youth as "experimenting on children."

Maher also repeated inaccurate claims that children are subjected to gender-affirming surgery, when they are not.

"Maybe the boy who thinks he's a girl is just gay," Maher mulled, before saying, "There are other solutions besides 'Hand me the dick saw.'"

Unsurprisingly, some among the fringe right hailed Maher for those comments, with anti-trans congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting out her thanks to the comedian.

Watch the July 31 edition of "Club Random" below. Leno's comments referenced in this article start at the 52:35 mark.