diff --git a/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py b/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
index ae6b72e946e..93add45ca47 100644
--- a/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
+++ b/django/core/management/commands/makemessages.py
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
             exts = extensions if extensions else ['js']
         else:
             exts = extensions if extensions else ['html', 'txt', 'py']
-        self.extensions = handle_extensions(exts, ignored=())
+        self.extensions = handle_extensions(exts)
 
         if (locale is None and not exclude and not process_all) or self.domain is None:
             raise CommandError("Type '%s help %s' for usage information." % (
diff --git a/django/core/management/templates.py b/django/core/management/templates.py
index d514c84755d..d088ca974ab 100644
--- a/django/core/management/templates.py
+++ b/django/core/management/templates.py
@@ -85,8 +85,7 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
                 raise CommandError("Destination directory '%s' does not "
                                    "exist, please create it first." % top_dir)
 
-        extensions = tuple(
-            handle_extensions(options['extensions'], ignored=()))
+        extensions = tuple(handle_extensions(options['extensions']))
         extra_files = []
         for file in options['files']:
             extra_files.extend(map(lambda x: x.strip(), file.split(',')))
diff --git a/django/core/management/utils.py b/django/core/management/utils.py
index f9effe7192b..7a823424a69 100644
--- a/django/core/management/utils.py
+++ b/django/core/management/utils.py
@@ -32,19 +32,16 @@ def popen_wrapper(args, os_err_exc_type=CommandError):
     )
 
 
-def handle_extensions(extensions=('html',), ignored=('py',)):
+def handle_extensions(extensions):
     """
     Organizes multiple extensions that are separated with commas or passed by
-    using --extension/-e multiple times. Note that the .py extension is ignored
-    here because of the way non-*.py files are handled in make_messages() (they
-    are copied to file.ext.py files to trick xgettext to parse them as Python
-    files).
+    using --extension/-e multiple times.
 
     For example: running 'django-admin makemessages -e js,txt -e xhtml -a'
     would result in an extension list: ['.js', '.txt', '.xhtml']
 
     >>> handle_extensions(['.html', 'html,js,py,py,py,.py', 'py,.py'])
-    {'.html', '.js'}
+    {'.html', '.js', '.py'}
     >>> handle_extensions(['.html, txt,.tpl'])
     {'.html', '.tpl', '.txt'}
     """
@@ -54,7 +51,7 @@ def handle_extensions(extensions=('html',), ignored=('py',)):
     for i, ext in enumerate(ext_list):
         if not ext.startswith('.'):
             ext_list[i] = '.%s' % ext_list[i]
-    return set(x for x in ext_list if x.strip('.') not in ignored)
+    return set(ext_list)
 
 
 def find_command(cmd, path=None, pathext=None):