Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno recently called out late-night TV for alienating “half the audience” with partisan politics.

During an interview with David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Leno, 75, opened up about making sure his jokes were politically balanced. Leno hosted The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2014.

“There was an analysis done of your work on The Tonight Show for the 22 years and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats,” Trulio pointed out. “Did you have a strategy?”

To that, Leno admitted, “It was fun to me when I got hate letters — ‘Dear Mr. Leno, you and your Republican friends’ and ‘Well, Mr. Leno, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy’ — over the same joke.”

“And I go, ‘Well, that’s good,’” he said. “That’s how you get a whole audience.”

Today, however, Leno acknowledged that the late-night TV landscape has changed.

“Now you have to be content with half the audience because you have to give your opinion,” he shared.

Additionally, Leno brought up his longtime friend, comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who died in 2004 and guest co-hosted The Tonight Show multiple times.

“I knew Rodney 40 years. I have no idea if he was Democrat or Republican,” he said. “We never discussed, we just discussed jokes.”

Leno continued, “And to me, I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, you know, the pressures of life, whatever it might be. And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong. But it’s just what happens when people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.”

During his chat with Trulio, Leno shared advice on how comedy can unite people.

“Funny is funny,” Leno said. “It’s funny when … you make fun of their side and they laugh at it. I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture.”

He concluded, “I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group … just do what’s funny.”

Although Leno didn’t touch upon Stephen Colbert’s Late Show cancellation, the interview came on the heels of the shocking July 17 announcement.