diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/31.5.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/31.5.nix
index 3943de2d8f9..0a71dc567b2 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/31.5.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/31.5.nix
@@ -27,9 +27,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "--with-system-ffi"
     "--enable-readline"
 
-    # there is at least one unfixed issue building the tests, so I didn't bother
-    "--disable-tests"
-
     # enabling these because they're wanted by 0ad. They may or may
     # not be good defaults for other uses.
     "--enable-gcgenerational"
@@ -44,9 +41,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   # to re-enable parallel builds if the source revision changes.
   enableParallelBuilding = false;
 
-  # see comment by --disable-tests
-  doCheck = false;
-
   postFixup = ''
     # The headers are symlinks to a directory that doesn't get put
     # into $out, so they end up broken. Fix that by just resolving the