diff --git a/code/game/say.dm b/code/game/say.dm
index da8ecf5a7e..35a1b1d072 100644
--- a/code/game/say.dm
+++ b/code/game/say.dm
@@ -96,15 +96,18 @@ GLOBAL_LIST_INIT(freqtospan, list(
 	return "[say_mod(input, message_mode)][spanned ? ", \"[spanned]\"" : ""]"
 	// Citadel edit [spanned ? ", \"[spanned]\"" : ""]"
 
+#define ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, char, html, varname) \
+	var/static/regex/##varname = regex("[char]{2}(.+?)[char]{2}", "g");\
+	input = varname.Replace_char(input, "<[html]>$1</[html]>")
+
 /atom/movable/proc/say_emphasis(input)
-	var/static/regex/italics = regex("\\|(?=\\S)(.*?)(?=\\S)\\|", "g")
-	input = replacetext_char(input, italics, "<i>$1</i>")
-	var/static/regex/bold = regex("\\+(?=\\S)(.*?)(?=\\S)\\+", "g")
-	input = replacetext_char(input, bold, "<b>$1</b>")
-	var/static/regex/underline = regex("_(?=\\S)(.*?)(?=\\S)_", "g")
-	input = replacetext_char(input, underline, "<u>$1</u>")
+	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "\\|", "i", italics)
+	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "\\+", "b", bold)
+	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "_", "u", underline)
 	return input
 
+#undef ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS
+
 /// 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, "*")