diff --git a/scrapy/utils/display.py b/scrapy/utils/display.py
index 3caf716b1..cb1a64f3d 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/display.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/display.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import sys
 import pprint as pypprint
 
 from scrapy.item import BaseItem
-from scrapy.http import Request, Response
 
 nocolour = False
 
@@ -20,30 +19,25 @@ def colorize(text):
     except ImportError:
         return text
 
-def pformat_dictobj(obj):
+def _pformat_dictobj(obj):
     clsname = obj.__class__.__name__
     return "%s(%s)\n" % (clsname, colorize(pypprint.pformat(obj.__dict__)))
 
-def pprint_dictobj(obj):
-    print pformat_dictobj(obj)
-
 def pformat(obj, *args, **kwargs):
     """
     Wrapper which autodetects the object type and uses the proper formatting
     function
     """
-
-    if isinstance(obj, (list, tuple)):
-        return "".join([pformat(i, *args, **kwargs) for i in obj])
-    elif isinstance(obj, (BaseItem, Request, Response)):
-        return pformat_dictobj(obj)
+    if isinstance(obj, BaseItem):
+        return _pformat_dictobj(obj)
+    elif hasattr(obj, '__iter__'):
+        return "".join(map(pformat, obj))
     else:
-        return colorize(pypprint.pformat(obj))
+        return colorize(pypprint.pformat(repr(obj)))
 
 def pprint(obj, *args, **kwargs):
     """
     Wrapper which autodetects the object type and uses the proper printing
     function
     """
-
     print pformat(obj, *args, **kwargs)