diff --git a/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py b/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
index f6813a6b3e..4712bc8216 100644
--- a/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
+++ b/zerver/lib/bugdown/__init__.py
@@ -948,7 +948,7 @@ class Bugdown(markdown.Extension):
             '_begin')
         md.inlinePatterns.add('usermention', UserMentionPattern(mention.find_mentions), '>backtick')
         md.inlinePatterns.add('emoji', Emoji(r'(?<!\w)(?P<syntax>:[^:\s]+:)(?!\w)'), '_end')
-        md.inlinePatterns.add('unicodeemoji', UnicodeEmoji(ur'(?<!\w)(?P<syntax>[\U0001F300-\U0001F64F\U0001F680-\U0001F6FF\u2600-\u26FF\u2700-\u27BF])(?!\w)'), '_end')
+        md.inlinePatterns.add('unicodeemoji', UnicodeEmoji(u'(?<!\\w)(?P<syntax>[\U0001F300-\U0001F64F\U0001F680-\U0001F6FF\u2600-\u26FF\u2700-\u27BF])(?!\\w)'), '_end')
 
         md.inlinePatterns.add('link', AtomicLinkPattern(markdown.inlinepatterns.LINK_RE, md), '>backtick')