diff --git a/build/pre-compile.js b/build/pre-compile.js
index 17bc43bce..4fc1bdd63 100644
--- a/build/pre-compile.js
+++ b/build/pre-compile.js
@@ -202,8 +202,8 @@
     // http://code.google.com/closure/compiler/docs/api-tutorial3.html#export
     source = source.replace(RegExp('\\.(' + propWhitelist.join('|') + ')\\b', 'g'), "['$1']");
 
-    // remove brackets from `_.escape(__t)` in `tokenizeEscape`
-    source = source.replace("_['escape'](__t)", '_.escape(__t)');
+    // remove brackets from `_.escape()` in `tokenizeEscape`
+    source = source.replace("_['escape'](\"", '_.escape("');
 
     // remove whitespace from string literals
     source = source.replace(/'(?:(?=(\\?))\1.)*?'/g, function(string) {
diff --git a/lodash.js b/lodash.js
index 673a59bf6..081e8b0f4 100644
--- a/lodash.js
+++ b/lodash.js
@@ -525,7 +525,7 @@
    */
   function tokenizeEscape(match, value) {
     var index = tokenized.length;
-    tokenized[index] = "'+\n((__t = (" + value + ")) == null ? '' : _.escape(__t)) +\n'";
+    tokenized[index] = "'+\n_.escape(" + value + ") +\n'";
     return token + index;
   }
 
@@ -2985,7 +2985,7 @@
    * // => "Curly, Larry & Moe"
    */
   function escape(string) {
-    return (string + '').replace(reUnescapedHtml, escapeHtmlChar);
+    return string == null ? '' : (string + '').replace(reUnescapedHtml, escapeHtmlChar);
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/test/test.js b/test/test.js
index 1c27d23b1..764d4d311 100644
--- a/test/test.js
+++ b/test/test.js
@@ -157,6 +157,11 @@
     test('should not escape the "/" character', function() {
       equal(_.escape('/'), '/');
     });
+
+    test('should return empty string when passed `null` or `undefined`', function() {
+      equal(_.escape(null), '');
+      equal(_.escape(undefined), '');
+    });
   }());
 
   /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/