diff --git a/lib/earthquake/commands.rb b/lib/earthquake/commands.rb
index 36773b5..7beb949 100644
--- a/lib/earthquake/commands.rb
+++ b/lib/earthquake/commands.rb
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ def self._eval_as_ruby_string(text)
 
   # :recent yugui/ruby-committers
   command %r|^:recent\s+([^\s]+)\/([^\s]+)$|, :as => :recent do |m|
-    puts_items twitter.list_statuses(m[1], m[2])
+    puts_items twitter.list_statuses(m[1], URI.escape(m[2]))
   end
 
   help :recent, "show recent tweets", <<-HELP