diff --git a/tests/test_http_response_text.py b/tests/test_http_response_text.py
index 507fd1864..5ef89fe4a 100644
--- a/tests/test_http_response_text.py
+++ b/tests/test_http_response_text.py
@@ -163,12 +163,13 @@ class TestTextResponse(TestResponse):
 
     def test_utf16(self):
         """Test utf-16 because UnicodeDammit is known to have problems with"""
+        body = b"\xff\xfeh\x00i\x00"
         r = self.response_class(
             "http://www.example.com",
-            body=b"\xff\xfeh\x00i\x00",
+            body=body,
             encoding="utf-16",
         )
-        self._assert_response_values(r, "utf-16", "hi")
+        self._assert_response_values(r, "utf-16", body)
 
     def test_invalid_utf8_encoded_body_with_valid_utf8_BOM(self):
         r6 = self.response_class(