diff --git a/src/ircmsgs.py b/src/ircmsgs.py
index 2c26f5dd5..999bd6589 100644
--- a/src/ircmsgs.py
+++ b/src/ircmsgs.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class IrcMsg(object):
     """
     __slots__ = ('args', 'command', 'host', 'nick', 'prefix', 'user',
                  '_hash', '_str', '_repr', '_len')
-    def __init__(self, s='', command='', args=None, prefix='', msg=None):
+    def __init__(self, s='', command='', args=(), prefix='', msg=None):
         assert not (msg and s), 'Ircmsg.__init__ cannot accept both s and msg'
         if not s and not command and not msg:
             raise MalformedIrcMsg, 'IRC messages require a command.'
diff --git a/test/test_ircmsgs.py b/test/test_ircmsgs.py
index 9796c2fdd..be5059894 100644
--- a/test/test_ircmsgs.py
+++ b/test/test_ircmsgs.py
@@ -180,5 +180,8 @@ class FunctionsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(ircmsgs.joins(channels, keys).args,
                          ('#osu,#umich', 'michiganSucks'))
 
+    def testQuit(self):
+        self.failUnless(ircmsgs.quit(prefix='foo!bar@baz'))
+
 
 # vim:set shiftwidth=4 tabstop=8 expandtab textwidth=78: