diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index b23235dc..25956be5 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -732,7 +732,14 @@ class Response(object):
             # a best guess).
             encoding = guess_json_utf(self.content)
             if encoding is not None:
-                return json.loads(self.content.decode(encoding), **kwargs)
+                try:
+                    return json.loads(self.content.decode(encoding), **kwargs)
+                except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                    # Wrong UTF codec detected; usually because it's not UTF-8
+                    # but some other 8-bit codec.  This is an RFC violation,
+                    # and the server didn't bother to tell us what codec *was*
+                    # used.
+                    pass
         return json.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
 
     @property