diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-02-26-AL-removals.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-02-26-AL-removals.rst
index b94d32bd8a90..a8b7cc789fcc 100644
--- a/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-02-26-AL-removals.rst
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-02-26-AL-removals.rst
@@ -36,3 +36,7 @@ The following deprecated API elements have been removed:
 - passing non-numbers to ``EngFormatter.format_eng``,
 - passing ``frac`` to ``PolarAxes.set_theta_grids``,
 - any mention of idle events,
+
+The following API elements have been removed:
+
+- ``matplotlib.sphinxext.sphinx_version``,
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py b/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
index 85aec8940ca2..da081d00b2e4 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/sphinxext/plot_directive.py
@@ -153,12 +153,6 @@
 align = Image.align
 import sphinx
 
-sphinx_version = sphinx.__version__.split(".")
-# The split is necessary for sphinx beta versions where the string is
-# '6b1'
-sphinx_version = tuple([int(re.split('[^0-9]', x)[0])
-                        for x in sphinx_version[:2]])
-
 import jinja2  # Sphinx dependency.
 
 import matplotlib
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/testing/__init__.py b/lib/matplotlib/testing/__init__.py
index ffc2c7fee03c..759ea5ca9f65 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/testing/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/testing/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import functools
+import locale
 import warnings
 
 import matplotlib as mpl
@@ -24,8 +25,6 @@ def set_reproducibility_for_testing():
 def setup():
     # The baseline images are created in this locale, so we should use
     # it during all of the tests.
-    import locale
-    from matplotlib.backends import backend_agg, backend_pdf, backend_svg
 
     try:
         locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'en_US.UTF-8')
@@ -35,15 +34,15 @@ def setup():
         except locale.Error:
             warnings.warn(
                 "Could not set locale to English/United States. "
-                "Some date-related tests may fail")
+                "Some date-related tests may fail.")
 
     mpl.use('Agg', warn=False)  # use Agg backend for these tests
 
-    # These settings *must* be hardcoded for running the comparison tests and
-    # are not necessarily the default values as specified in rcsetup.py
     with warnings.catch_warnings():
         warnings.simplefilter("ignore", MatplotlibDeprecationWarning)
         mpl.rcdefaults()  # Start with all defaults
 
+    # These settings *must* be hardcoded for running the comparison tests and
+    # are not necessarily the default values as specified in rcsetup.py.
     set_font_settings_for_testing()
     set_reproducibility_for_testing()
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_rcparams.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_rcparams.py
index 2d2bac44ed29..d78c033b53da 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_rcparams.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_rcparams.py
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 from collections import OrderedDict
+import copy
+from itertools import chain
+import locale
 import os
 from unittest import mock
 import warnings
@@ -9,7 +12,6 @@
 import matplotlib as mpl
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import matplotlib.colors as mcolors
-from itertools import chain
 import numpy as np
 from matplotlib.rcsetup import (validate_bool_maybe_none,
                                 validate_stringlist,
@@ -25,15 +27,13 @@
                                 _validate_linestyle)
 
 
-mpl.rc('text', usetex=False)
-mpl.rc('lines', linewidth=22)
-
-fname = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_rcparams.rc')
-
-
 def test_rcparams():
+    mpl.rc('text', usetex=False)
+    mpl.rc('lines', linewidth=22)
+
     usetex = mpl.rcParams['text.usetex']
     linewidth = mpl.rcParams['lines.linewidth']
+    fname = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_rcparams.rc')
 
     # test context given dictionary
     with mpl.rc_context(rc={'text.usetex': not usetex}):
@@ -51,11 +51,8 @@ def test_rcparams():
     assert mpl.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] == linewidth
 
     # test rc_file
-    try:
-        mpl.rc_file(fname)
-        assert mpl.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] == 33
-    finally:
-        mpl.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = linewidth
+    mpl.rc_file(fname)
+    assert mpl.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] == 33
 
 
 def test_RcParams_class():
@@ -131,8 +128,7 @@ def test_Bug_2543():
                 mpl.rcParams[key] = _copy[key]
             mpl.rcParams['text.dvipnghack'] = None
         with mpl.rc_context():
-            from copy import deepcopy
-            _deep_copy = deepcopy(mpl.rcParams)
+            _deep_copy = copy.deepcopy(mpl.rcParams)
         # real test is that this does not raise
         assert validate_bool_maybe_none(None) is None
         assert validate_bool_maybe_none("none") is None
@@ -194,7 +190,6 @@ def test_mec_rcparams():
 def test_Issue_1713():
     utf32_be = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
                            'test_utf32_be_rcparams.rc')
-    import locale
     with mock.patch('locale.getpreferredencoding', return_value='UTF-32-BE'):
         rc = mpl.rc_params_from_file(utf32_be, True, False)
     assert rc.get('timezone') == 'UTC'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 7d23246f8647..03ca28762231 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -241,10 +241,8 @@ def run(self):
         for mod in ext_modules:
             mod.finalize()
 
-    extra_args = {}
-
     # Finally, pass this all along to distutils to do the heavy lifting.
-    distrib = setup(
+    setup(
         name="matplotlib",
         version=__version__,
         description="Python plotting package",
@@ -278,5 +276,4 @@ def run(self):
         # check for zip safety.
         zip_safe=False,
         cmdclass=cmdclass,
-        **extra_args
     )