diff --git a/django/utils/encoding.py b/django/utils/encoding.py
index 66e6ebdd76..2c9ef0975b 100644
--- a/django/utils/encoding.py
+++ b/django/utils/encoding.py
@@ -89,7 +89,16 @@ def force_unicode(s, encoding='utf-8', strings_only=False, errors='strict'):
             # SafeUnicode at the end.
             s = s.decode(encoding, errors)
     except UnicodeDecodeError, e:
-        raise DjangoUnicodeDecodeError(s, *e.args)
+        if not isinstance(s, Exception):
+            raise DjangoUnicodeDecodeError(s, *e.args)
+        else:
+            # If we get to here, the caller has passed in an Exception
+            # subclass populated with non-ASCII bytestring data without a
+            # working unicode method. Try to handle this without raising a
+            # further exception by individually forcing the exception args
+            # to unicode.
+            s = ' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, strings_only,
+                    errors) for arg in s])
     return s
 
 def smart_str(s, encoding='utf-8', strings_only=False, errors='strict'):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/debug/__init__.py b/tests/regressiontests/debug/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7ca84ebc4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/debug/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# -*- coding: utf8 -*-
+
+class BrokenException(Exception):
+    pass
+
+except_args = ('Broken!',           # plain exception with ASCII text
+               u'¡Broken!',        # non-ASCII unicode data
+               '¡Broken!',         # non-ASCII, utf-8 encoded bytestring
+               '\xa1Broken!', )     # non-ASCII, latin1 bytestring
+
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/debug/models.py b/tests/regressiontests/debug/models.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/debug/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/debug/tests.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b99445d432
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/debug/tests.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+from django.test import TestCase
+from django.conf import settings
+from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
+
+from regressiontests.debug import BrokenException, except_args
+
+class ExceptionTest(TestCase):
+    urls = 'regressiontests.debug.urls'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.old_debug = settings.DEBUG
+        settings.DEBUG = True
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        settings.DEBUG = self.old_debug
+
+    def test_view_exceptions(self):
+        for n in range(len(except_args)):
+            self.assertRaises(BrokenException, self.client.get,
+                reverse('view_exception', args=(n,)))
+
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/debug/urls.py b/tests/regressiontests/debug/urls.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..762ab2d632
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/debug/urls.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
+
+urlpatterns = patterns('regressiontests.debug.views',
+    url(r'view_exception/(?P<n>\d+)/$', 'view_exception', name='view_exception'),
+)
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/debug/views.py b/tests/regressiontests/debug/views.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e58e1ca637
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/debug/views.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+from regressiontests.debug import BrokenException, except_args
+
+def view_exception(request, n):
+    raise BrokenException(except_args[int(n)])
+