diff --git a/inc/database.php b/inc/database.php
index b3fb24b0..f5ea73bd 100644
--- a/inc/database.php
+++ b/inc/database.php
@@ -101,12 +101,6 @@ function sql_open() {
 	}
 }
 
-// 5.6.10 becomes 50610 HACK: hardcoded to be above critical value 50803 due to laziness
-function mysql_version() {
-	// TODO delete all references of this function everywhere
-	return 80504;
-}
-
 function prepare($query) {
 	global $pdo, $debug, $config;
 
diff --git a/inc/functions.php b/inc/functions.php
index 5d0d6933..eecf7eb1 100644
--- a/inc/functions.php
+++ b/inc/functions.php
@@ -2082,9 +2082,6 @@ function markup(&$body, $track_cites = false, $op = false) {
 	$body = str_replace("\r", '', $body);
 	$body = utf8tohtml($body);
 
-	if (mysql_version() < 50503)
-		$body = mb_encode_numericentity($body, array(0x010000, 0xffffff, 0, 0xffffff), 'UTF-8');
-
 	if ($config['markup_code']) {
 		$code_markup = array();
 		$body = preg_replace_callback($config['markup_code'], function($matches) use (&$code_markup) {
diff --git a/inc/mod/pages.php b/inc/mod/pages.php
index f45fd839..b980c844 100644
--- a/inc/mod/pages.php
+++ b/inc/mod/pages.php
@@ -520,9 +520,6 @@ function mod_new_board() {
 
         $query = Element('posts.sql', array('board' => $board['uri']));
 
-        if (mysql_version() < 50503)
-            $query = preg_replace('/(CHARSET=|CHARACTER SET )utf8mb4/', '$1utf8', $query);
-
         query($query) or error(db_error());
 
         if ($config['cache']['enabled'])
diff --git a/install.php b/install.php
index 94a589b1..bc3ba7d4 100644
--- a/install.php
+++ b/install.php
@@ -52,11 +52,7 @@ if (file_exists($config['has_installed'])) {
 
 	function __query($sql) {
 		sql_open();
-
-		if (mysql_version() >= 50503)
-			return query($sql);
-		else
-			return query(str_replace('utf8mb4', 'utf8', $sql));
+		return query($sql);
 	}
 
 	$boards = listBoards();
@@ -939,7 +935,6 @@ if ($step == 0) {
 	$sql = @file_get_contents('install.sql') or error("Couldn't load install.sql.");
 
 	sql_open();
-	$mysql_version = mysql_version();
 
 	// This code is probably horrible, but what I'm trying
 	// to do is find all of the SQL queires and put them
@@ -952,8 +947,6 @@ if ($step == 0) {
 	$sql_errors = '';
 	$sql_err_count = 0;
 	foreach ($queries as $query) {
-		if ($mysql_version < 50503)
-			$query = preg_replace('/(CHARSET=|CHARACTER SET )utf8mb4/', '$1utf8', $query);
 		$query = preg_replace('/^([\w\s]*)`([0-9a-zA-Z$_\x{0080}-\x{FFFF}]+)`/u', '$1``$2``', $query);
 		if (!query($query)) {
 			$sql_err_count++;
diff --git a/post.php b/post.php
index ebb1d474..bebb2fa0 100644
--- a/post.php
+++ b/post.php
@@ -35,35 +35,6 @@ function md5_hash_of_file($config, $file)
     }
 }
 
-/**
- * Strip the markup from the given string
- *
- * @param string $post_body The body of the post.
- * @return string
- */
-function strip_markup($post_body)
-{
-    if (mysql_version() >= 50503) {
-        // Assume we're using the utf8mb4 charset.
-        return $post_body;
-    } else {
-        // MySQL's `utf8` charset only supports up to 3-byte symbols.
-        // Remove anything >= 0x010000.
-
-        $chars = preg_split('//u', $post_body, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
-        $res = '';
-        foreach ($chars as $char) {
-            $o = 0;
-            $ord = ordutf8($char, $o);
-            if ($ord >= 0x010000)
-                continue;
-            $res .= $char;
-        }
-
-        return $res;
-    }
-}
-
 /**
  * Checks if the user at the remote ip passed the captcha.
  *
@@ -1314,7 +1285,7 @@ function handle_post()
         }
     }
 
-    $post['body_nomarkup'] = strip_markup($post['body']);
+    $post['body_nomarkup'] = $post['body'];
     $post['tracked_cites'] = markup($post['body'], true);
 
     if ($post['has_file']) {