diff --git a/scripts/copy-crosscode-emoji-url b/scripts/copy-crosscode-emoji-url
index f2c1ec5..03d26cd 100755
--- a/scripts/copy-crosscode-emoji-url
+++ b/scripts/copy-crosscode-emoji-url
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@
 import sys
 import os
 from configparser import ConfigParser
+import requests
 import json
 import urllib.parse
-import urllib.request
 
 sys.path.insert(1, os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "script-resources"))
 
@@ -48,8 +48,9 @@ def emote_downloader_and_iterator():
         with open(registry_dump_file, "r") as f:
             emote_registry_data = json.load(f)
     except FileNotFoundError:
-        with urllib.request.urlopen(registry_dump_url, timeout=10) as response:
-            emote_registry_data = json.load(response)
+        response = requests.get(registry_dump_url, timeout=10)
+        response.raise_for_status()
+        emote_registry_data = response.json()
 
     assert emote_registry_data["version"] == 1
 
diff --git a/scripts/discord-whois b/scripts/discord-whois
index 91fd346..4dd5ca5 100755
--- a/scripts/discord-whois
+++ b/scripts/discord-whois
@@ -6,13 +6,10 @@
 
 import sys
 import os
-import urllib.request
-import urllib.error
+import requests
 import colorama
 import time
 import argparse
-import json
-import typing
 
 
 DISCORD_EPOCH = 1420070400000  # milliseconds
@@ -55,23 +52,19 @@ if not (image_size is None or (image_size > 0 and image_size & (image_size - 1))
     parser.error("image_size must be greater than zero and a power of two")
 
 
+# no timeout here, sadly, due to this genius: <https://github.com/psf/requests/issues/3099#issuecomment-215522806>
+response = requests.get(
+    "https://discordapp.com/api/users/{}".format(user_snowflake),
+    headers={"Authorization": "Bot {}".format(bot_token)},
+    timeout=3,
+)
 try:
-    opener = urllib.request.build_opener()
-    # Don't send the User-Agent header, Discord blocks the default one
-    opener.addheaders = []
-    with opener.open(
-        urllib.request.Request(
-            "http://discord.com/api/users/{}".format(user_snowflake),
-            headers={"Authorization": "Bot {}".format(bot_token)},
-        ),
-        timeout=10,
-    ) as response:
-        raw_data = json.load(response)
-except urllib.error.HTTPError as err:
-    print(err, file=sys.stderr)
-    print(err.read(), file=sys.stderr)
+    response.raise_for_status()
+except requests.HTTPError as err:
+    print(response.json(), file=sys.stderr)
     raise err
 
+raw_data = response.json()
 data = {}
 
 data["ID"] = raw_data["id"]