diff --git a/django/template/__init__.py b/django/template/__init__.py
index a1d1d402d0..e898fc7636 100644
--- a/django/template/__init__.py
+++ b/django/template/__init__.py
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ class Token(object):
             self.contents[:20].replace('\n', ''))
 
     def split_contents(self):
-        return smart_split(self.contents)
+        return list(smart_split(self.contents))
 
 class Lexer(object):
     def __init__(self, template_string, origin):
@@ -758,7 +758,7 @@ class DebugVariableNode(VariableNode):
 
 def generic_tag_compiler(params, defaults, name, node_class, parser, token):
     "Returns a template.Node subclass."
-    bits = token.contents.split()[1:]
+    bits = token.split_contents()[1:]
     bmax = len(params)
     def_len = defaults and len(defaults) or 0
     bmin = bmax - def_len
diff --git a/docs/templates_python.txt b/docs/templates_python.txt
index 2fa837e424..894e23bd17 100644
--- a/docs/templates_python.txt
+++ b/docs/templates_python.txt
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ the current date/time, formatted according to a parameter given in the tag, in
 `strftime syntax`_. It's a good idea to decide the tag syntax before anything
 else. In our case, let's say the tag should be used like this::
 
-    <p>The time is {% current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p" %}.</p>
+    <p>The time is {% current_time "%Y-%m-%d %I:%M %p" %}.</p>
 
 .. _`strftime syntax`: http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-time.html#l2h-1941
 
@@ -653,10 +653,10 @@ object::
     from django import template
     def do_current_time(parser, token):
         try:
-            # Splitting by None == splitting by spaces.
-            tag_name, format_string = token.contents.split(None, 1)
+            # split_contents() knows not to split quoted strings.
+            tag_name, format_string = token.split_contents()
         except ValueError:
-            raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires an argument" % token.contents[0]
+            raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires a single argument" % token.contents[0]
         if not (format_string[0] == format_string[-1] and format_string[0] in ('"', "'")):
             raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag's argument should be in quotes" % tag_name
         return CurrentTimeNode(format_string[1:-1])
@@ -667,7 +667,11 @@ Notes:
       example.
 
     * ``token.contents`` is a string of the raw contents of the tag. In our
-      example, it's ``'current_time "%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p"'``.
+      example, it's ``'current_time "%Y-%m-%d %I:%M %p"'``.
+
+    * The ``token.split_contents()`` method separates the arguments on spaces,
+      whilst keeping quoted strings together. The more straightforward
+      ``token.contents.split()`` would be as robust.
 
     * This function is responsible for raising
       ``django.template.TemplateSyntaxError``, with helpful messages, for
@@ -681,7 +685,7 @@ Notes:
 
     * The function returns a ``CurrentTimeNode`` with everything the node needs
       to know about this tag. In this case, it just passes the argument --
-      ``"%Y-%M-%d %I:%M %p"``. The leading and trailing quotes from the
+      ``"%Y-%m-%d %I:%M %p"``. The leading and trailing quotes from the
       template tag are removed in ``format_string[1:-1]``.
 
     * The parsing is very low-level. The Django developers have experimented
@@ -766,27 +770,24 @@ registers it with the template system.
 
 Our earlier ``current_time`` function could thus be written like this::
 
-    # This version of do_current_time takes only a single argument and returns
-    # a string.
+    def current_time(format_string):
+        return datetime.datetime.now().strftime(format_string)
 
-    def do_current_time(token):
-        try:
-            # Splitting by None == splitting by spaces.
-            tag_name, format_string = token.contents.split(None, 1)
-        except ValueError:
-            raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag requires an argument" % token.contents[0]
-        if not (format_string[0] == format_string[-1] and format_string[0] in ('"', "'")):
-            raise template.TemplateSyntaxError, "%r tag's argument should be in quotes" % tag_name
-        return datetime.datetime.now().strftime(self.format_string[1:-1])
-
-    register.simple_tag(do_current_time)
+    register.simple_tag(current_time)
 
 In Python 2.4, the decorator syntax also works::
 
     @register.simple_tag
-    def do_current_time(token):
+    def current_time(token):
         ...
 
+A couple of things to note about the ``simple_tag`` helper function:
+    * Only the (single) argument is passed into our function.i
+    * Checking for the required number of arguments, etc, has already been
+      done by the time our function is called, so we don't need to do that.
+    * The quotes around the argument (if any) have already been stripped away,
+      so we just receive a plain string.
+
 Inclusion tags
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~