diff --git a/django/test/simple.py b/django/test/simple.py
index 7195d94a3aa..6804b4958c6 100644
--- a/django/test/simple.py
+++ b/django/test/simple.py
@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@ def get_tests(app_module):
     return test_module
 
 
+def make_doctest(module):
+    return doctest.DocTestSuite(module,
+       checker=doctestOutputChecker,
+       runner=DocTestRunner,
+    )
+
+
 def build_suite(app_module):
     """
     Create a complete Django test suite for the provided application module.
@@ -56,9 +63,7 @@ def build_suite(app_module):
         suite.addTest(unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromModule(
             app_module))
         try:
-            suite.addTest(doctest.DocTestSuite(app_module,
-                                               checker=doctestOutputChecker,
-                                               runner=DocTestRunner))
+            suite.addTest(make_doctest(app_module))
         except ValueError:
             # No doc tests in models.py
             pass
@@ -75,9 +80,7 @@ def build_suite(app_module):
             suite.addTest(unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromModule(
                 test_module))
             try:
-                suite.addTest(doctest.DocTestSuite(
-                    test_module, checker=doctestOutputChecker,
-                    runner=DocTestRunner))
+                suite.addTest(make_doctest(test_module))
             except ValueError:
                 # No doc tests in tests.py
                 pass
@@ -130,9 +133,7 @@ def build_test(label):
     tests = []
     for module in app_module, test_module:
         try:
-            doctests = doctest.DocTestSuite(module,
-                                            checker=doctestOutputChecker,
-                                            runner=DocTestRunner)
+            doctests = make_doctest(module)
             # Now iterate over the suite, looking for doctests whose name
             # matches the pattern that was given
             for test in doctests:
diff --git a/tests/test_utils/doctest_output.py b/tests/test_utils/doctest_output.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..724364428a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_utils/doctest_output.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+from django.utils import six
+
+__test__ = {"API_TEST": r"""
+# Some checks of the doctest output normalizer.
+# Standard doctests do fairly
+>>> import json
+>>> from django.utils.xmlutils import SimplerXMLGenerator
+>>> from django.utils.six import StringIO
+
+>>> def produce_json():
+...     return json.dumps(['foo', {'bar': ('baz', None, 1.0, 2), 'whiz': 42}])
+
+>>> def produce_xml():
+...     stream = StringIO()
+...     xml = SimplerXMLGenerator(stream, encoding='utf-8')
+...     xml.startDocument()
+...     xml.startElement("foo", {"aaa" : "1.0", "bbb": "2.0"})
+...     xml.startElement("bar", {"ccc" : "3.0"})
+...     xml.characters("Hello")
+...     xml.endElement("bar")
+...     xml.startElement("whiz", {})
+...     xml.characters("Goodbye")
+...     xml.endElement("whiz")
+...     xml.endElement("foo")
+...     xml.endDocument()
+...     return stream.getvalue()
+
+>>> def produce_xml_fragment():
+...     stream = StringIO()
+...     xml = SimplerXMLGenerator(stream, encoding='utf-8')
+...     xml.startElement("foo", {"aaa": "1.0", "bbb": "2.0"})
+...     xml.characters("Hello")
+...     xml.endElement("foo")
+...     xml.startElement("bar", {"ccc": "3.0", "ddd": "4.0"})
+...     xml.endElement("bar")
+...     return stream.getvalue()
+
+# JSON output is normalized for field order, so it doesn't matter
+# which order json dictionary attributes are listed in output
+>>> produce_json()
+'["foo", {"bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2], "whiz": 42}]'
+
+>>> produce_json()
+'["foo", {"whiz": 42, "bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]'
+
+# XML output is normalized for attribute order, so it doesn't matter
+# which order XML element attributes are listed in output
+>>> produce_xml()
+'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<foo aaa="1.0" bbb="2.0"><bar ccc="3.0">Hello</bar><whiz>Goodbye</whiz></foo>'
+
+>>> produce_xml()
+'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<foo bbb="2.0" aaa="1.0"><bar ccc="3.0">Hello</bar><whiz>Goodbye</whiz></foo>'
+
+>>> produce_xml_fragment()
+'<foo aaa="1.0" bbb="2.0">Hello</foo><bar ccc="3.0" ddd="4.0"></bar>'
+
+>>> produce_xml_fragment()
+'<foo bbb="2.0" aaa="1.0">Hello</foo><bar ddd="4.0" ccc="3.0"></bar>'
+
+"""}
+
+if not six.PY3:
+    __test__["API_TEST"] += """
+>>> def produce_long():
+...     return 42L
+
+>>> def produce_int():
+...     return 42
+
+# Long values are normalized and are comparable to normal integers ...
+>>> produce_long()
+42
+
+# ... and vice versa
+>>> produce_int()
+42L
+"""
diff --git a/tests/test_utils/tests.py b/tests/test_utils/tests.py
index f0cfac75941..554f77adcae 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils/tests.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils/tests.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
+from StringIO import StringIO
 import warnings
 
 from django.db import connection
@@ -8,8 +9,10 @@ from django.http import HttpResponse
 from django.template.loader import render_to_string
 from django.test import SimpleTestCase, TestCase, skipUnlessDBFeature
 from django.test.html import HTMLParseError, parse_html
+from django.test.simple import make_doctest
 from django.test.utils import CaptureQueriesContext
 from django.utils import six
+from django.utils import unittest
 from django.utils.unittest import skip
 
 from .models import Person
@@ -621,79 +624,10 @@ class AssertFieldOutputTests(SimpleTestCase):
             }
         self.assertFieldOutput(MyCustomField, {}, {}, empty_value=None)
 
-__test__ = {"API_TEST": r"""
-# Some checks of the doctest output normalizer.
-# Standard doctests do fairly
->>> import json
->>> from django.utils.xmlutils import SimplerXMLGenerator
->>> from django.utils.six import StringIO
 
->>> def produce_json():
-...     return json.dumps(['foo', {'bar': ('baz', None, 1.0, 2), 'whiz': 42}])
+class DoctestNormalizerTest(SimpleTestCase):
 
->>> def produce_xml():
-...     stream = StringIO()
-...     xml = SimplerXMLGenerator(stream, encoding='utf-8')
-...     xml.startDocument()
-...     xml.startElement("foo", {"aaa" : "1.0", "bbb": "2.0"})
-...     xml.startElement("bar", {"ccc" : "3.0"})
-...     xml.characters("Hello")
-...     xml.endElement("bar")
-...     xml.startElement("whiz", {})
-...     xml.characters("Goodbye")
-...     xml.endElement("whiz")
-...     xml.endElement("foo")
-...     xml.endDocument()
-...     return stream.getvalue()
-
->>> def produce_xml_fragment():
-...     stream = StringIO()
-...     xml = SimplerXMLGenerator(stream, encoding='utf-8')
-...     xml.startElement("foo", {"aaa": "1.0", "bbb": "2.0"})
-...     xml.characters("Hello")
-...     xml.endElement("foo")
-...     xml.startElement("bar", {"ccc": "3.0", "ddd": "4.0"})
-...     xml.endElement("bar")
-...     return stream.getvalue()
-
-# JSON output is normalized for field order, so it doesn't matter
-# which order json dictionary attributes are listed in output
->>> produce_json()
-'["foo", {"bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2], "whiz": 42}]'
-
->>> produce_json()
-'["foo", {"whiz": 42, "bar": ["baz", null, 1.0, 2]}]'
-
-# XML output is normalized for attribute order, so it doesn't matter
-# which order XML element attributes are listed in output
->>> produce_xml()
-'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<foo aaa="1.0" bbb="2.0"><bar ccc="3.0">Hello</bar><whiz>Goodbye</whiz></foo>'
-
->>> produce_xml()
-'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<foo bbb="2.0" aaa="1.0"><bar ccc="3.0">Hello</bar><whiz>Goodbye</whiz></foo>'
-
->>> produce_xml_fragment()
-'<foo aaa="1.0" bbb="2.0">Hello</foo><bar ccc="3.0" ddd="4.0"></bar>'
-
->>> produce_xml_fragment()
-'<foo bbb="2.0" aaa="1.0">Hello</foo><bar ddd="4.0" ccc="3.0"></bar>'
-
-"""}
-
-if not six.PY3:
-    __test__["API_TEST"] += """
->>> def produce_long():
-...     return 42L
-
->>> def produce_int():
-...     return 42
-
-# Long values are normalized and are comparable to normal integers ...
->>> produce_long()
-42
-
-# ... and vice versa
->>> produce_int()
-42L
-
-"""
+    def test_normalizer(self):
+        suite = make_doctest("test_utils.doctest_output")
+        failures = unittest.TextTestRunner(stream=StringIO()).run(suite)
+        self.assertEqual(failures.failures, [])