diff --git a/lldb/test/API/lldbtest.py b/lldb/test/API/lldbtest.py
--- a/lldb/test/API/lldbtest.py
+++ b/lldb/test/API/lldbtest.py
@@ -119,9 +119,14 @@
                 litConfig.maxIndividualTestTime)
 
         if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-            # In Python 2, string objects can contain Unicode characters.
-            out = out.decode('utf-8')
-            err = err.decode('utf-8')
+            # In Python 2, string objects can contain Unicode characters. Use
+            # the non-strict 'replace' decoding mode. We cannot use the strict
+            # mode right now because lldb's StringPrinter facility and the
+            # Python utf8 decoder have different interpretations of which
+            # characters are "printable". This leads to Python utf8 decoding
+            # exceptions even though lldb is behaving as expected.
+            out = out.decode('utf-8', 'replace')
+            err = err.decode('utf-8', 'replace')
 
         output = """Script:\n--\n%s\n--\nExit Code: %d\n""" % (
             ' '.join(cmd), exitCode)