diff --git a/share/functions/__fish_paginate.fish b/share/functions/__fish_paginate.fish
index 937c5c6de..ae7ae896f 100644
--- a/share/functions/__fish_paginate.fish
+++ b/share/functions/__fish_paginate.fish
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ function __fish_paginate -d "Paginate the current command using the users defaul
         set cmd $PAGER
     end
 
-    if test -z (commandline -j)
+    if test -z (commandline -j | string join '')
         commandline -a $history[1]
     end