diff --git a/django/test/testcases.py b/django/test/testcases.py
index bfa1aeb219..02717ffaa7 100644
--- a/django/test/testcases.py
+++ b/django/test/testcases.py
@@ -282,6 +282,11 @@ class TransactionTestCase(ut2.TestCase):
         set up. This means that user-defined Test Cases aren't required to
         include a call to super().setUp().
         """
+        testMethod = getattr(self, self._testMethodName)
+        if (getattr(self.__class__, "__unittest_skip__", False) or
+            getattr(testMethod, "__unittest_skip__", False)):
+            return
+
         self.client = self.client_class()
         try:
             self._pre_setup()
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/test_utils/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/test_utils/tests.py
index f4b836a792..673295be37 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/test_utils/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/test_utils/tests.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ from __future__ import with_statement
 import sys
 
 from django.test import TestCase, skipUnlessDBFeature, skipIfDBFeature
+from django.utils.unittest import skip
 
 from models import Person
 
@@ -115,6 +116,21 @@ class SaveRestoreWarningState(TestCase):
         # Remove the filter we just added.
         self.restore_warnings_state()
 
+
+class SkippingExtraTests(TestCase):
+    fixtures = ['should_not_be_loaded.json']
+
+    # HACK: This depends on internals of our TestCase subclasses
+    def __call__(self, result=None):
+        # Detect fixture loading by counting SQL queries, should be zero
+        with self.assertNumQueries(0):
+            super(SkippingExtraTests, self).__call__(result)
+
+    @skip("Fixture loading should not be performed for skipped tests.")
+    def test_fixtures_are_skipped(self):
+        pass
+
+
 __test__ = {"API_TEST": r"""
 # Some checks of the doctest output normalizer.
 # Standard doctests do fairly