diff --git a/bridge/discord/handlers.go b/bridge/discord/handlers.go
index 4ffbf5ab..c86a9e8d 100644
--- a/bridge/discord/handlers.go
+++ b/bridge/discord/handlers.go
@@ -88,7 +88,6 @@ func (b *Bdiscord) messageCreate(s *discordgo.Session, m *discordgo.MessageCreat
 
 	if m.Content != "" {
 		b.Log.Debugf("== Receiving event %#v", m.Message)
-		m.Message.Content = b.stripCustomoji(m.Message.Content)
 		m.Message.Content = b.replaceChannelMentions(m.Message.Content)
 		rmsg.Text, err = m.ContentWithMoreMentionsReplaced(b.c)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/bridge/discord/helpers.go b/bridge/discord/helpers.go
index 734de3cd..c094e47a 100644
--- a/bridge/discord/helpers.go
+++ b/bridge/discord/helpers.go
@@ -129,7 +129,6 @@ func (b *Bdiscord) getCategoryChannelName(name, parentID string) string {
 var (
 	// See https://discordapp.com/developers/docs/reference#message-formatting.
 	channelMentionRE = regexp.MustCompile("<#[0-9]+>")
-	emojiRE          = regexp.MustCompile("<(:.*?:)[0-9]+>")
 	userMentionRE    = regexp.MustCompile("@[^@\n]{1,32}")
 )
 
@@ -176,10 +175,6 @@ func (b *Bdiscord) replaceUserMentions(text string) string {
 	return userMentionRE.ReplaceAllStringFunc(text, replaceUserMentionFunc)
 }
 
-func (b *Bdiscord) stripCustomoji(text string) string {
-	return emojiRE.ReplaceAllString(text, `$1`)
-}
-
 func (b *Bdiscord) replaceAction(text string) (string, bool) {
 	if strings.HasPrefix(text, "_") && strings.HasSuffix(text, "_") {
 		return text[1 : len(text)-1], true
diff --git a/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo b/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
index d218088a..a68bb3dd 100644
--- a/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
+++ b/internal/tengo/outmessage.tengo
@@ -12,8 +12,14 @@ text := import("text")
 
 // start - strip irc colors 
 // if we're not sending to an irc bridge we strip the IRC colors
-if inProtocol == "irc" {
+if inProtocol == "irc" && outProtocol != "irc" {
     re := text.re_compile(`\x03(?:\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)?|[[:cntrl:]]`)
     msgText=re.replace(msgText,"")
 }
 // end - strip irc colors
+
+// strip custom emoji
+if inProtocol == "discord" {
+    re := text.re_compile(`<a?(:.*?:)[0-9]+>`)
+    msgText=re.replace(msgText,"$1")
+}