diff --git a/django/contrib/auth/context_processors.py b/django/contrib/auth/context_processors.py
index ad72cd80fc..3ffab01e94 100644
--- a/django/contrib/auth/context_processors.py
+++ b/django/contrib/auth/context_processors.py
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-from django.utils.functional import lazy, memoize, SimpleLazyObject
-
 # PermWrapper and PermLookupDict proxy the permissions system into objects that
 # the template system can understand.
 
@@ -36,23 +34,13 @@ def auth(request):
     If there is no 'user' attribute in the request, uses AnonymousUser (from
     django.contrib.auth).
     """
-    # If we access request.user, request.session is accessed, which results in
-    # 'Vary: Cookie' being sent in every request that uses this context
-    # processor, which can easily be every request on a site if
-    # TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS has this context processor added.  This kills
-    # the ability to cache.  So, we carefully ensure these attributes are lazy.
-    # We don't use django.utils.functional.lazy() for User, because that
-    # requires knowing the class of the object we want to proxy, which could
-    # break with custom auth backends.  LazyObject is a less complete but more
-    # flexible solution that is a good enough wrapper for 'User'.
-    def get_user():
-        if hasattr(request, 'user'):
-            return request.user
-        else:
-            from django.contrib.auth.models import AnonymousUser
-            return AnonymousUser()
+    if hasattr(request, 'user'):
+        user = request.user
+    else:
+        from django.contrib.auth.models import AnonymousUser
+        user = AnonymousUser()
 
     return {
-        'user': SimpleLazyObject(get_user),
-        'perms':  lazy(lambda: PermWrapper(get_user()), PermWrapper)(),
+        'user': user,
+        'perms': PermWrapper(user),
     }
diff --git a/django/contrib/auth/middleware.py b/django/contrib/auth/middleware.py
index 2c19a4e840..1cd8ae5885 100644
--- a/django/contrib/auth/middleware.py
+++ b/django/contrib/auth/middleware.py
@@ -1,26 +1,21 @@
 from django.contrib import auth
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
+from django.utils.functional import SimpleLazyObject
 
 
-class LazyUser(object):
-    def __get__(self, request, obj_type=None):
-        if not hasattr(request, '_cached_user'):
-            from django.contrib.auth import get_user
-            request._cached_user = get_user(request)
-        return request._cached_user
+def get_user(request):
+    from django.contrib.auth import get_user
+
+    if not hasattr(request, '_cached_user'):
+        request._cached_user = get_user(request)
+    return request._cached_user
 
 
 class AuthenticationMiddleware(object):
     def process_request(self, request):
         assert hasattr(request, 'session'), "The Django authentication middleware requires session middleware to be installed. Edit your MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES setting to insert 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware'."
 
-        # We dynamically subclass request.__class__ rather than monkey patch the
-        # original class.
-        class RequestWithUser(request.__class__):
-            user = LazyUser()
-
-        request.__class__ = RequestWithUser
-        return None
+        request.user = SimpleLazyObject(lambda: get_user(request))
 
 
 class RemoteUserMiddleware(object):
diff --git a/django/utils/functional.py b/django/utils/functional.py
index 21463bd575..b0233de6ed 100644
--- a/django/utils/functional.py
+++ b/django/utils/functional.py
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ class LazyObject(object):
     def __dir__(self):
         if self._wrapped is None:
             self._setup()
-        return  dir(self._wrapped)
+        return dir(self._wrapped)
 
 class SimpleLazyObject(LazyObject):
     """
@@ -227,9 +227,7 @@ class SimpleLazyObject(LazyObject):
         value.
         """
         self.__dict__['_setupfunc'] = func
-        # For some reason, we have to inline LazyObject.__init__ here to avoid
-        # recursion
-        self._wrapped = None
+        super(SimpleLazyObject, self).__init__()
 
     def __str__(self):
         if self._wrapped is None: self._setup()