diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
index 645685664b..c98b1eb17f 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ class Display:
             try:
                 cmd = subprocess.Popen([self.b_cowsay, "-l"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
                 (out, err) = cmd.communicate()
-                self.cows_available = [ to_bytes(c) for c in set(C.ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST).intersection(out.split())]
+                self.cows_available = set([ to_bytes(c) for c in out.split() ])
+                if C.ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST:
+                    self.cows_available = set(C.ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST).intersection(self.cows_available)
             except:
                 # could not execute cowsay for some reason
                 self.b_cowsay = False