diff -r 13307eb5bf47 Lib/idlelib/rpc.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/rpc.py	Sat Apr 14 14:20:29 2012 -0500
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/rpc.py	Mon Apr 16 20:08:12 2012 +0300
@@ -615,10 +615,8 @@
     try:
         sys.stdout.write(text)
     except UnicodeEncodeError:
-        # let's use ascii while utf8-bmp codec doesn't present
-        encoding = 'ascii'
-        bytes = text.encode(encoding, 'backslashreplace')
-        text = bytes.decode(encoding, 'strict')
+        # escape non-BMP characters
+        text = ''.join(c if ord(c) <= 0xffff else '\\U%08x' % ord(c) for c in text)
         sys.stdout.write(text)
     sys.stdout.write("\n")
     builtins._ = value