diff --git a/wxPython/src/_core_ex.py b/wxPython/src/_core_ex.py
index 45f7eeab6d..0e5a51307b 100644
--- a/wxPython/src/_core_ex.py
+++ b/wxPython/src/_core_ex.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if default == 'ascii':
     try:
         default = locale.getdefaultlocale()[1]
         codecs.lookup(default)
-    except (ValueError, LookupError):
+    except (ValueError, LookupError, TypeError):
         default = _sys.getdefaultencoding()
     del locale
     del codecs