diff --git a/code/game/say.dm b/code/game/say.dm
index d0d031ee0d..4a361b2461 100644
--- a/code/game/say.dm
+++ b/code/game/say.dm
@@ -97,20 +97,14 @@ GLOBAL_LIST_INIT(freqtospan, list(
 	// Citadel edit [spanned ? ", \"[spanned]\"" : ""]"
 
 /atom/movable/proc/say_emphasis(input)
-	input = encode_html_emphasis(input, "|", "i")
-	input = encode_html_emphasis(input, "_", "u")
-	input = encode_html_emphasis(input, "+", "b")
+	var/static/regex/italics = regex("|(\\b.*?\\b)|", "g")
+	input = replacetext_char(input, italics, "<i>$1</i>")
+	var/static/regex/bold = regex("+(\\b.*?\\b)+", "g")
+	input = replacetext_char(input, bold, "<b>$1</b>")
+	var/static/regex/underline = regex("_(\\B.*?\\B)_", "g")
+	input = replacetext_char(input, underline, "<u>$1</u>")
 	return input
 
-/**
-  * Replaces a character inside message with html tags.  Note that html var must not include brackets.
-  * Will not create an open html tag if it would not have a closing one.
-  */
-/atom/movable/proc/encode_html_emphasis(input, char, html)
-	var/regex/search = regex("([REGEX_QUOTE(char)])(\\b.*\\b)([REGEX_QUOTE(char)])", "g")
-	return search.Replace_char(input, "<[html]>$2</[html]>")
-
-
 /// Quirky citadel proc for our custom sayverbs to strip the verb out. Snowflakey as hell, say rewrite 3.0 when?
 /atom/movable/proc/quoteless_say_quote(input, list/spans = list(speech_span), message_mode)
 	var/pos = findtext(input, "*")