2 files changed, 15 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
index 4a19387511..91e4f07c6c 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/encoding.rb
@@ -158,18 +158,18 @@ class Struct #:nodoc:
 end
 
 class TrueClass
-  AS_JSON = ActiveSupport::JSON::Variable.new('true').freeze
-  def as_json(options = nil) AS_JSON end #:nodoc:
+  def as_json(options = nil) self end #:nodoc:
+  def encode_json(encoder) to_s end #:nodoc:
 end
 
 class FalseClass
-  AS_JSON = ActiveSupport::JSON::Variable.new('false').freeze
-  def as_json(options = nil) AS_JSON end #:nodoc:
+  def as_json(options = nil) self end #:nodoc:
+  def encode_json(encoder) to_s end #:nodoc:
 end
 
 class NilClass
-  AS_JSON = ActiveSupport::JSON::Variable.new('null').freeze
-  def as_json(options = nil) AS_JSON end #:nodoc:
+  def as_json(options = nil) self end #:nodoc:
+  def encode_json(encoder) 'null' end #:nodoc:
 end
 
 class String
diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/variable.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/variable.rb
index 5685ed18b7..17b709decc 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/variable.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/json/variable.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,15 @@
+require 'active_support/deprecation'
+
 module ActiveSupport
   module JSON
-    # A string that returns itself as its JSON-encoded form.
+    # Deprecated: A string that returns itself as its JSON-encoded form.
     class Variable < String
+      def initialize(*args)
+        ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn 'ActiveSupport::JSON::Variable is deprecated and will be removed in Rails 4.0. ' \
+                                        'For your own custom JSON literals, define #as_json and #encode_json yourself.'
+        super
+      end
+
       def as_json(options = nil) self end #:nodoc:
       def encode_json(encoder) self end #:nodoc:
     end