import re


def remove_tags(html, tags):
    """Returns the given HTML with given tags removed."""
    tags = [re.escape(tag) for tag in tags.split()]
    tags_re = '(%s)' % '|'.join(tags)
    starttag_re = re.compile(r'<%s(/?>|(\s+[^>]*>))' % tags_re, re.U)
    endtag_re = re.compile('</%s>' % tags_re)
    html = starttag_re.sub('', html)
    html = endtag_re.sub('', html)
    return html