diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bbcode_dialect.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bbcode_dialect.js
index 9cdb9de55be..a29b9c99eae 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bbcode_dialect.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bbcode_dialect.js
@@ -78,16 +78,23 @@ Discourse.Dialect.inlineBetween({
   emitter: function(contents) { return ['a', {href: contents, 'data-bbcode': true}, contents]; }
 });
 
+
 Discourse.Dialect.inlineBetween({
   start: '[spoiler]',
   stop: '[/spoiler]',
   rawContents: true,
   emitter: function(contents) {
-    if (/<img/i.test(contents)) {
-      return ['div', { 'class': 'spoiler' }, contents];
-    } else {
-      return ['span', { 'class': 'spoiler' }, contents];
-    }
+    return ["__spoiler", this.processInline(contents)];
+  }
+});
+
+Discourse.Dialect.replaceElement('__spoiler', function(node, processInside) {
+  // Surround images with a `<div class='spoiler'>`, any other tags
+  // end up in a `span`
+  if (node.nodeType === 1 && node.nodeName === "IMG") {
+    return ['div', {class: 'spoiler'}, processInside(node)];
+  } else {
+    return ['span', {class: 'spoiler'}, processInside(node)];
   }
 });
 
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
index cf12fc64d1d..5be09d55914 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
@@ -22,6 +22,50 @@ function initializeDialects() {
   initialized = true;
 }
 
+/**
+  Converts an HTML node Element into JsonML.
+
+  @method nodeToJsonML
+  @param {Element} node to convert
+  @returns {Array} jsonML result
+**/
+function nodeToJsonML(node) {
+  if (node.nodeType === 3) {
+    return node.nodeValue;
+  }
+
+  var result = [node.nodeName.toLowerCase()],
+      attributes = {};
+
+  if (node.attributes && node.attributes.length > 0) {
+    for (var i=0; i<node.attributes.length; i++) {
+      var attr = node.attributes[i];
+      attributes[attr.name] = attr.value;
+    }
+    result.push(attributes);
+  }
+  var innerResult = eachNodeList(node.childNodes, nodeToJsonML);
+  return result.concat(innerResult);
+}
+
+/**
+  Iterate through a NodeList and apply a function, returning
+  a concatenated array of results.
+
+  @method eachNodeList
+  @param {NodeList} nodeList to iterate through
+  @param {Function} f to call
+**/
+function eachNodeList(nodeList, f) {
+  if (!nodeList || nodeList.length === 0) { return []; }
+
+  var result = [];
+  for (var i=0; i<nodeList.length; i++) {
+    result.push(f(nodeList[i], nodeToJsonML));
+  }
+  return result;
+}
+
 /**
   Process the text nodes in the JsonML tree, calling any emitters that have
   been added.
@@ -453,6 +497,32 @@ Discourse.Dialect = {
         node[node.length-1] = emitter(node[node.length-1]);
       }
     });
+  },
+
+
+  /**
+    Replaces an element by name in the final jsonML tree by parsing the HTML
+    and using a `replacer` callback.
+
+    @method replaceElement
+    @param {String} nodeName to match
+    @param {Function} replacer function to call on each node
+  **/
+  replaceElement: function(nodeName, replacer) {
+    Discourse.Dialect.on('parseNode', function(event) {
+      var node = event.node;
+      if (node[0] === nodeName) {
+        var doc = document.implementation.createHTMLDocument("");
+        if (doc) {
+          doc.documentElement.innerHTML = node[1];
+          if (doc.body) {
+            var jsonML = eachNodeList(doc.body.childNodes, replacer),
+                parentNode = event.path[event.path.length-1];
+            parentNode.splice.apply(parentNode, [parentNode.indexOf(node), 1].concat(jsonML));
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    });
   }
 
 };
diff --git a/test/javascripts/lib/bbcode_test.js b/test/javascripts/lib/bbcode_test.js
index d1b059180f3..cde805e89a5 100644
--- a/test/javascripts/lib/bbcode_test.js
+++ b/test/javascripts/lib/bbcode_test.js
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 module("Discourse.BBCode");
 
 var format = function(input, expected, text) {
-  var cooked = Discourse.Markdown.cook(input, {lookupAvatar: false});
-  equal(cooked, "<p>" + expected + "</p>", text);
+  var cooked = Discourse.Markdown.cook(input, {lookupAvatar: false}).replace(/'/g, "\"");
+  equal(cooked, "<p>" + expected.replace(/'/g, "\"") + "</p>", text);
 };
 
 test('basic bbcode', function() {
@@ -30,8 +30,15 @@ test('code', function() {
 });
 
 test('spoiler', function() {
+  format("[spoiler][/spoiler]", "", "it can spoil nothing");
   format("[spoiler]it's a sled[/spoiler]", "<span class=\"spoiler\">it's a sled</span>", "supports spoiler tags on text");
-  format("[spoiler]<img src='http://eviltrout.com/eviltrout.png' width='50' height='50'>[/spoiler]", "<div class=\"spoiler\"><img src='http://eviltrout.com/eviltrout.png' width='50' height='50'></div>", "supports spoiler tags on images");
+  format("[spoiler]<img src='http://eviltrout.com/eviltrout.png' width='50' height='50'>[/spoiler]", "<div class=\"spoiler\"><img src='http://eviltrout.com/eviltrout.png' width='50' height='50'/></div>", "supports spoiler tags on images");
+  format("foo bar[spoiler]aaa <img src='#'> bbb[/spoiler]", 
+        "foo bar<span class='spoiler'>aaa </span><div class='spoiler'><img src='#'/></div><span class='spoiler'> bbb</span>",
+        "It wraps images and text differently in the same block");
+  format("[spoiler]<a href='#'>hello</a>[/spoiler]", 
+         "<span class='spoiler'><a href='#'>hello</a></span>",
+         "It surrounds other HTML");
 });
 
 test('lists', function() {