diff --git a/youtube_dl/utils.py b/youtube_dl/utils.py
index b7013a6aae..d00b14b86d 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/utils.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/utils.py
@@ -403,7 +403,7 @@ def _htmlentity_transform(entity):
             pass
 
     # Unknown entity in name, return its literal representation
-    return ('&%s;' % entity)
+    return '&%s;' % entity
 
 
 def unescapeHTML(s):