Jay Leno is a generous guy... So much, so that he was willing to take a MASSIVE hit to his own income in order to save the jobs of his fellow Tonight Show staff members.

Last month NBC laid off around 20 to 25 employees to help lower the cost of Jay's late night talk show, The Tonight Show, but there would've been more lay offs if Jay hadn't stepped in. What the infamous funnyman did for his fellow staffers is no laughing matter... He chose to reduce his own pay by 50% in order to save the jobs of others.

A spokesperson for NBC confirmed the good deed on Friday, saying that Jay reduced his income from $30 million to $15 million and renewed his contract through September 2014. That combined with the lay offs helped the network lower the Tonight Show budget from $2.3 million a week to $1.7 million a week.

AMAZING.... $1.7 million a week to film The Tonight Show??

And that's the reduced number.... Crazy.... Right?

Photo courtesy of Getty Images