diff --git a/doc/man/man1/notcurses-demo.1.md b/doc/man/man1/notcurses-demo.1.md
index a0e9f9177..7f12be36e 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/notcurses-demo.1.md
+++ b/doc/man/man1/notcurses-demo.1.md
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ terminal, and will refuse to run in anything smaller than 80x24.
 **-V**|**--version**: Print the program name and version, and exit with success.
 
 ***demospec***: Select which demos to run, and what order to run them in. The
-default is **ixetunchdmbkywgarvlsfjqzo**. See above for a list of demos.
+default is **ixetunchmdbkywgarvlsfjqzo**. See above for a list of demos.
 
 Default margins are all 0, and thus the full screen will be rendered. Using
 **-m**, margins can be supplied. Provide a single number to set all four margins
diff --git a/src/demo/demo.c b/src/demo/demo.c
index 854a70e47..1a54d6cb4 100644
--- a/src/demo/demo.c
+++ b/src/demo/demo.c
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ static int democount;
 static demoresult* results;
 static char *datadir = NOTCURSES_SHARE;
 
-static const char DEFAULT_DEMO[] = "ixetunchdmbkywgarvlsfjqzo";
+static const char DEFAULT_DEMO[] = "ixetunchmdbkywgarvlsfjqzo";
 
 atomic_bool interrupted = ATOMIC_VAR_INIT(false);
 // checked following demos, whether aborted, failed, or otherwise
diff --git a/src/lib/egcpool.h b/src/lib/egcpool.h
index 2232b8630..b2bc85844 100644
--- a/src/lib/egcpool.h
+++ b/src/lib/egcpool.h
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ utf8_egc_len(const char* gcluster, int* colcount){
   mbstate_t mbt;
   memset(&mbt, 0, sizeof(mbt));
   wchar_t wc, prevw = 0;
+  bool injoin = false;
   do{
     r = mbrtowc(&wc, gcluster, MB_CUR_MAX, &mbt);
     if(r < 0){
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ utf8_egc_len(const char* gcluster, int* colcount){
       logerror("Invalid UTF8: %s\n", gcluster);
       return -1;
     }
-    if(prevw && uc_is_grapheme_break(prevw, wc)){
+    if(prevw && !injoin && uc_is_grapheme_break(prevw, wc)){
       break; // starts a new EGC, exit and do not claim
     }
     int cols = wcwidth(wc);
@@ -115,6 +116,7 @@ utf8_egc_len(const char* gcluster, int* colcount){
       logerror("Prohibited or invalid Unicode: 0x%x\n", wc);
       return -1;
     }
+    injoin = (wc == L'\u200d');
     *colcount += cols;
     ret += r;
     gcluster += r;
diff --git a/src/tests/cell.cpp b/src/tests/cell.cpp
index 381c1e7c3..ad45fe445 100644
--- a/src/tests/cell.cpp
+++ b/src/tests/cell.cpp
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ TEST_CASE("Cell") {
     WARN(1 == nccell_cols(&c));
     CHECK(9 == nccell_load(n_, &c, "นี้"));
     WARN(1 == nccell_cols(&c));
+
+    // type-3 woman playing water polo, 17 bytes (5 characters)
+    CHECK(17 == nccell_load(n_, &c, "\U0001f93d\U0001f3fc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f"));
+    WARN(2 == nccell_cols(&c));
+    nccell_release(n_, &c);
   }
 
   SUBCASE("Loadchar") {