diff --git a/examples/playbook.yml b/examples/playbook.yml
index 4d5972b4c2..d79e493561 100644
--- a/examples/playbook.yml
+++ b/examples/playbook.yml
@@ -2,21 +2,21 @@
   tasks:
   - do:
     - configure template & module variables
-    - [ setup, [ "a=2", "b=3", "c=4" ] ]
+    - setup a=2 b=3 c=4
   - do:
     - copy a file
-    - [ copy, [ "/srv/a", "/srv/b" ] ]
+    - copy /srv/a /srv/b
   - do:
     - template from local file template.j2 to remote location /srv/file.out
-    - [ template, [ '/srv/template.j2', '/srv/file.out' ] ]
+    - template /srv/template.j2 /srv/file.out
   - do:
     - update apache
-    - [ command, [/usr/bin/yum, update, apache] ]
+    - command /usr/bin/yum update apache
     onchange:
     - do:
       - restart apache
-      - [ command, [/sbin/service, apache, restart] ]
+      - command /sbin/service apache restart
     - do:
       - run bin false
-      - [ command, [/bin/false] ]
+      - command /bin/false
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook.py b/lib/ansible/playbook.py
index 590b0270f4..769c315864 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import ansible.runner
 import ansible.constants as C
 import json
 import yaml
+import shlex
 
 # TODO: make a constants file rather than
 # duplicating these
@@ -111,7 +112,9 @@ class PlayBook(object):
 
         instructions = task['do']
         (comment, module_details) = instructions
-        (module_name, module_args) = module_details
+        tokens = shlex.split(module_details)
+        module_name = tokens[0]
+        module_args = tokens[1:]
 
         namestr = "%s/%s" % (pattern, comment)
         if conditional: