diff --git a/stdlib/2and3/tarfile.pyi b/stdlib/2and3/tarfile.pyi
index 618293cf8..820aa373b 100644
--- a/stdlib/2and3/tarfile.pyi
+++ b/stdlib/2and3/tarfile.pyi
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ class TarFile(Iterable[TarInfo]):
     def __enter__(self) -> TarFile: ...
     def __exit__(self,
                  exc_type: Optional[Type[BaseException]],
-                 exc_val: Optional[Exception],
+                 exc_val: Optional[BaseException],
                  exc_tb: Optional[TracebackType]) -> bool: ...
     def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[TarInfo]: ...
     @classmethod