diff --git a/Modules/_functoolsmodule.c b/Modules/_functoolsmodule.c
--- a/Modules/_functoolsmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_functoolsmodule.c
@@ -709,6 +709,14 @@
 
     /* short path, key will match args anyway, which is a tuple */
     if (!typed && !kwds) {
+        if (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(args) == 1) {
+            /* Save space and improve speed by unwrapping 1-tuples */
+            key = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(args, 0);
+            if (!PyTuple_CheckExact(key)) {
+                Py_INCREF(key);
+                return key;
+            }
+        }
         Py_INCREF(args);
         return args;
     }