diff --git a/bumblebee/theme.py b/bumblebee/theme.py
index d7e8471..3d5b114 100644
--- a/bumblebee/theme.py
+++ b/bumblebee/theme.py
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ class Theme(object):
         if not self._widget:
             self._widget = widget
 
-        if self._widget.get("theme.exclude", "") == name:
+        if name in bumblebee.util.aslist(self._widget.get("theme.exclude", "")):
             return None
 
         if self._widget != widget:
diff --git a/bumblebee/util.py b/bumblebee/util.py
index fdd3af5..0d12105 100644
--- a/bumblebee/util.py
+++ b/bumblebee/util.py
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ def asbool(val):
     val = str(val).strip().lower()
     return val in ("t", "true", "y", "yes", "on", "1")
 
+def aslist(val):
+    if val is None:
+        return []
+    if isinstance(val, list):
+        return val
+    return str(val).replace(' ', '').split(',')
+
 def execute(cmd, wait=True):
     logging.info("executing command '{}'".format(cmd))
     args = shlex.split(cmd)