diff --git a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/__init__.py b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/__init__.py
index c99e4a8..bfa5317 100644
--- a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/__init__.py
+++ b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/__init__.py
@@ -13,3 +13,8 @@ except AttributeError:
 if version_info < (2,1,0):
     raise ImportError(msg + ", but you have %s" % tornado.version)
 del msg
+
+# check for pyzmq 2.1.4
+from IPython.zmq import check_for_zmq
+check_for_zmq('2.1.4', 'IPython.frontend.html.notebook')
+del check_for_zmq
diff --git a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/notebookapp.py b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/notebookapp.py
index 2387fc8..9c34df4 100644
--- a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/notebookapp.py
+++ b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/notebookapp.py
@@ -35,13 +35,7 @@ import zmq
 # Install the pyzmq ioloop. This has to be done before anything else from
 # tornado is imported.
 from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
-# FIXME: ioloop.install is new in pyzmq-2.1.7, so remove this conditional
-# when pyzmq dependency is updated beyond that.
-if hasattr(ioloop, 'install'):
-    ioloop.install()
-else:
-    import tornado.ioloop
-    tornado.ioloop.IOLoop = ioloop.IOLoop
+ioloop.install()
 
 from tornado import httpserver
 from tornado import web
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/__init__.py b/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
index 6986364..7f558fd 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/__init__.py
@@ -12,6 +12,40 @@
 import warnings
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V
 
+
+def patch_pyzmq():
+    """backport a few patches from newer pyzmq
+    
+    These can be removed as we bump our minimum pyzmq version
+    """
+    
+    import zmq
+    
+    # ioloop.install, introduced in pyzmq 2.1.7
+    from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
+    
+    def install():
+        import tornado.ioloop
+        tornado.ioloop.IOLoop = ioloop.IOLoop
+    
+    if not hasattr(ioloop, 'install'):
+        ioloop.install = install
+    
+    # fix missing DEALER/ROUTER aliases in pyzmq < 2.1.9
+    if not hasattr(zmq, 'DEALER'):
+        zmq.DEALER = zmq.XREQ
+    if not hasattr(zmq, 'ROUTER'):
+        zmq.ROUTER = zmq.XREP
+    
+    # fallback on stdlib json if jsonlib is selected, because jsonlib breaks things.
+    # jsonlib support is removed from pyzmq >= 2.2.0
+
+    from zmq.utils import jsonapi
+    if jsonapi.jsonmod.__name__ == 'jsonlib':
+        import json
+        jsonapi.jsonmod = json
+
+
 def check_for_zmq(minimum_version, module='IPython.zmq'):
     try:
         import zmq
@@ -24,12 +58,6 @@ def check_for_zmq(minimum_version, module='IPython.zmq'):
         raise ImportError("%s requires pyzmq >= %s, but you have %s"%(
                         module, minimum_version, pyzmq_version))
 
-    # fix missing DEALER/ROUTER aliases in pyzmq < 2.1.9
-    if not hasattr(zmq, 'DEALER'):
-        zmq.DEALER = zmq.XREQ
-    if not hasattr(zmq, 'ROUTER'):
-        zmq.ROUTER = zmq.XREP
-
     if V(zmq.zmq_version()) >= V('4.0.0'):
         warnings.warn("""libzmq 4 detected.
         It is unlikely that IPython's zmq code will work properly.
@@ -37,3 +65,4 @@ def check_for_zmq(minimum_version, module='IPython.zmq'):
         RuntimeWarning)
 
 check_for_zmq('2.1.4')
+patch_pyzmq()
diff --git a/IPython/zmq/session.py b/IPython/zmq/session.py
index e92254d..46eedd7 100644
--- a/IPython/zmq/session.py
+++ b/IPython/zmq/session.py
@@ -74,21 +74,9 @@ def squash_unicode(obj):
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
-# jsonlib behaves a bit differently, so handle that where it affects us
-if jsonapi.jsonmod.__name__ == 'jsonlib':
-    # kwarg for serializing unknown types (datetime) is different
-    dumps_kwargs = dict(on_unknown=date_default)
-    # By default, jsonlib unpacks floats as Decimal instead of float,
-    # which can foul things up
-    loads_kwargs = dict(use_float=True)
-else:
-    # ISO8601-ify datetime objects
-    dumps_kwargs = dict(default=date_default)
-    # nothing to specify for loads
-    loads_kwargs = dict()
-
-json_packer = lambda obj: jsonapi.dumps(obj, **dumps_kwargs)
-json_unpacker = lambda s: extract_dates(jsonapi.loads(s, **loads_kwargs))
+# ISO8601-ify datetime objects
+json_packer = lambda obj: jsonapi.dumps(obj, default=date_default)
+json_unpacker = lambda s: extract_dates(jsonapi.loads(s))
 
 pickle_packer = lambda o: pickle.dumps(o,-1)
 pickle_unpacker = pickle.loads