diff --git a/zephyr/lib/actions.py b/zephyr/lib/actions.py
index 4600b90ef9..139ebbe65e 100644
--- a/zephyr/lib/actions.py
+++ b/zephyr/lib/actions.py
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ def do_send_messages(messages):
         cache_save_message(message['message'])
 
     # We can only publish messages to longpolling clients if the Tornado server is running.
-    if settings.TORNADO_SERVER:
+    if True:
         for message in messages:
             # Render Markdown etc. here and store (automatically) in
             # memcached, so that the single-threaded Tornado server
diff --git a/zephyr/tests.py b/zephyr/tests.py
index 799211e577..64627f00bb 100644
--- a/zephyr/tests.py
+++ b/zephyr/tests.py
@@ -1555,10 +1555,22 @@ class S3Test(AuthedTestCase):
             self.test_uris.remove(uri)
 
 
+class DummyStream:
+    def closed(self):
+        return False
+
+class DummyObject:
+    pass
+
+class DummyTornadoRequest:
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.connection = DummyObject()
+        self.connection.stream = DummyStream()
 
 class DummyHandler(object):
     def __init__(self, assert_callback):
         self.assert_callback = assert_callback
+        self.request = DummyTornadoRequest()
 
     # Mocks RequestHandler.async_callback, which wraps a callback to
     # handle exceptions.  We return the callback as-is.
@@ -1568,10 +1580,11 @@ class DummyHandler(object):
     def write(self, response):
         raise NotImplemented
 
-    def finish(self, response):
+    def humbug_finish(self, response, *ignore):
         if self.assert_callback:
             self.assert_callback(response)
 
+
 class DummySession(object):
     session_key = "0"
 
@@ -1589,18 +1602,25 @@ class GetUpdatesTest(AuthedTestCase):
 
     def common_test_get_updates(self, view_func, extra_post_data = {}):
         user_profile = self.get_user_profile("hamlet@humbughq.com")
+        message_content = 'tornado test message'
+        self.got_callback = False
 
         def callback(response):
-            correct_message_ids = [m.id for m in
-                filter_by_subscriptions(Message.objects.all(), user_profile)]
-            for message in response['messages']:
-                self.assertGreater(message['id'], 1)
-                self.assertIn(message['id'], correct_message_ids)
+            self.got_callback = True
+            msg = response['messages'][0]
+            if str(msg['content_type']) == 'text/html':
+                self.assertEqual('<p>%s</p>' % message_content, msg['content'])
+            else:
+                self.assertEqual(message_content, msg['content'])
 
         post_data = {}
         post_data.update(extra_post_data)
         request = POSTRequestMock(post_data, user_profile, callback)
         self.assertEqual(view_func(request), RespondAsynchronously)
+        self.send_message("hamlet@humbughq.com", "hamlet@humbughq.com",
+                Recipient.PERSONAL, message_content)
+        self.assertTrue(self.got_callback)
+
 
     def test_json_get_updates(self):
         """
diff --git a/zephyr/tornado_callbacks.py b/zephyr/tornado_callbacks.py
index 63400bd040..3962e43297 100644
--- a/zephyr/tornado_callbacks.py
+++ b/zephyr/tornado_callbacks.py
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ def initialize_user_messages():
         stream = streams[m.recipient.type_id]
         add_stream_message(stream.realm.id, stream.name, m.id)
 
-    if not settings.DEPLOYED:
+    if not settings.DEPLOYED and not settings.TEST_SUITE:
         # Filling the memcached cache is a little slow, so do it in a child process.
         # For DEPLOYED cases, we run this from restart_server.
         subprocess.Popen(["python", os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "manage.py"),
@@ -352,6 +352,8 @@ def send_notification_http(data):
         requests.post(settings.TORNADO_SERVER + '/notify_tornado', data=dict(
                 data   = ujson.dumps(data),
                 secret = settings.SHARED_SECRET))
+    else:
+        process_notification(data)
 
 def send_notification(data):
     return queue_json_publish("notify_tornado", data, send_notification_http)