diff --git a/Lib/httplib.py b/Lib/httplib.py
index c5e600c..43c8797 100644
--- a/Lib/httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/httplib.py
@@ -1236,6 +1236,8 @@
 
 class BadStatusLine(HTTPException):
     def __init__(self, line):
+        if not line:
+            line = repr(line)
         self.args = line,
         self.line = line