diff --git a/lib/coffee-script/repl.js b/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
index 977f4d42..1f0ccfc0 100644
--- a/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
+++ b/lib/coffee-script/repl.js
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
       var js;
       input = input.replace(/\uFF00/g, '\n');
       input = input.replace(/(^|[\r\n]+)(\s*)##?(?:[^#\r\n][^\r\n]*|)($|[\r\n])/, '$1$2$3');
-      if (/^\s*$/.test(input)) {
+      if (/^(\()?\s*(\n\))?$/.test(input)) {
         return cb(null);
       }
       try {
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@
           filename: filename,
           bare: true
         });
+        return cb(null, vm.runInContext(js, context, filename));
       } catch (err) {
-        cb(err);
+        return cb(err);
       }
-      return cb(null, vm.runInContext(js, context, filename));
     }
   };
 
diff --git a/src/repl.coffee b/src/repl.coffee
index c0855b43..2d8b873c 100644
--- a/src/repl.coffee
+++ b/src/repl.coffee
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ replDefaults =
     # strip single-line comments
     input = input.replace /(^|[\r\n]+)(\s*)##?(?:[^#\r\n][^\r\n]*|)($|[\r\n])/, '$1$2$3'
     # empty command
-    return cb null if /^\s*$/.test input
+    return cb null if /^(\s*|\(\s*\))$/.test input
     # TODO: fix #1829: pass in-scope vars and avoid accidentally shadowing them by omitting those declarations
     try
       js = CoffeeScript.compile "_=(#{input}\n)", {filename, bare: yes}
+      cb null, vm.runInContext(js, context, filename)
     catch err
       cb err
-    cb null, vm.runInContext(js, context, filename)
 
 addMultilineHandler = (repl) ->
   {rli, inputStream, outputStream} = repl