diff --git a/lib/jekyll-gist/gist_tag.rb b/lib/jekyll-gist/gist_tag.rb
index 2633692..a6ebb0b 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll-gist/gist_tag.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll-gist/gist_tag.rb
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ module Jekyll
   module Gist
     class GistTag < Liquid::Tag
       def render(context)
+        @special_characters = "#"
         @encoding = context.registers[:site].config["encoding"] || "utf-8"
         @settings = context.registers[:site].config["gist"]
         if (tag_contents = determine_arguments(@markup.strip))
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ def render(context)
           filename = tag_contents[1]
           gist_id = context[gist_id] if context_contains_key?(context, gist_id)
           filename = context[filename] if context_contains_key?(context, filename)
+          filename.delete!(@special_characters)
           noscript_tag = gist_noscript_tag(gist_id, filename)
           script_tag = gist_script_tag(gist_id, filename)
           "#{noscript_tag}#{script_tag}"
diff --git a/spec/gist_tag_spec.rb b/spec/gist_tag_spec.rb
index f04618c..beaac34 100644
--- a/spec/gist_tag_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/gist_tag_spec.rb
@@ -49,17 +49,25 @@
     end
 
     context "with file specified" do
-      before { stub_request(:get, "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/#{gist}/raw/#{filename}").to_return(:body => http_output) }
+      before { stub_request(:get, %r!https://gist.githubusercontent.com/#{gist}/raw/.*!).to_return(:body => http_output) }
       let(:gist)     { "mattr-/24081a1d93d2898ecf0f" }
       let(:filename) { "myfile.ext" }
       let(:content)  { "{% gist #{gist} #{filename} %}" }
 
       it "produces the correct script tag" do
-        expect(output).to match(%r!<script src="https:\/\/gist.github.com\/#{gist}.js\?file=#{filename}">\s<\/script>!)
+        expect(output).to match(%r!<script src="https://gist.github.com/#{gist}.js\?file=#{filename}">\s<\/script>!)
       end
       it "produces the correct noscript tag" do
         expect(output).to match(%r!<noscript><pre>&lt;test&gt;true&lt;\/test&gt;<\/pre><\/noscript>\n!)
       end
+
+      context "with octothorpe in filename" do
+        let(:filename) { "my#file" }
+
+        it "removes special characters from the filename" do
+          expect(output).to match(%r!<script src="https://gist.github.com/#{gist}.js\?file=myfile">\s</script>!)
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     context "with variable gist id" do