diff --git a/klaus/ctagsutils.py b/klaus/ctagsutils.py
index 5790bad777a5df7928651ef1c920f540fc53559b..82c9c9b4b505c9fa2a76f9db6e07ec39b74cec92 100644
--- a/klaus/ctagsutils.py
+++ b/klaus/ctagsutils.py
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@ import os
 import subprocess
 import shutil
 import tempfile
-from klaus.utils import check_output
+import subprocess
 
 
 def check_have_exuberant_ctags():
     """Check that the 'ctags' binary is *Exuberant* ctags (not etags etc)"""
     try:
-        return b"Exuberant" in check_output(["ctags", "--version"], stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        return b"Exuberant" in subprocess.check_output(["ctags", "--version"], stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
         return False
 
diff --git a/tests/test_manpage.py b/tests/test_manpage.py
index 640b561fc996dc1df18dd81dea8f4b450af03159..fce93fc3e12a722b0f6083283c2326c25cfbdb02 100644
--- a/tests/test_manpage.py
+++ b/tests/test_manpage.py
@@ -1,15 +1,16 @@
 import sys
 import re
+import subprocess
 import klaus_cli
 try:
     from unittest import mock
 except ImportError:
     import mock
-from klaus.utils import check_output, force_unicode
+from klaus.utils import force_unicode
 
 
 def test_covers_all_cli_options():
-    manpage = force_unicode(check_output(["man", "./klaus.1"]))
+    manpage = force_unicode(subprocess.check_output(["man", "./klaus.1"]))
 
     def assert_in_manpage(s):
         clean = lambda x: re.sub('(.\\x08)|\s', '', x)