diff --git a/MultiServer.py b/MultiServer.py
index 0fe950b5e4f3..8dfad5040de3 100644
--- a/MultiServer.py
+++ b/MultiServer.py
@@ -1153,7 +1153,10 @@ def __call__(self, raw: str) -> typing.Optional[bool]:
         if not raw:
             return
         try:
-            command = shlex.split(raw, comments=False)
+            try:
+                command = shlex.split(raw, comments=False)
+            except ValueError:  # most likely: "ValueError: No closing quotation"
+                command = raw.split()
             basecommand = command[0]
             if basecommand[0] == self.marker:
                 method = self.commands.get(basecommand[1:].lower(), None)