diff --git a/gallery_dl/util.py b/gallery_dl/util.py
index 7d1cc32de7..657f66ba22 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/util.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/util.py
@@ -71,6 +71,24 @@ def unique_sequence(iterable):
             yield element
 
 
+def contains(values, elements):
+    """Returns True if at least one of 'elements' is contained in 'values'"""
+    if not isinstance(elements, (tuple, list)):
+        elements = (elements,)
+
+    if isinstance(values, str):
+        fmt = r"\b{}\b".format
+        for e in elements:
+            if re.search(fmt(e), values):
+                return True
+    else:
+        for e in elements:
+            if e in values:
+                return True
+
+    return False
+
+
 def raises(cls):
     """Returns a function that raises 'cls' as exception"""
     def wrap(*args):
@@ -429,6 +447,7 @@ def __str__():
 SENTINEL = object()
 SPECIAL_EXTRACTORS = {"oauth", "recursive", "test"}
 GLOBALS = {
+    "contains" : contains,
     "parse_int": text.parse_int,
     "urlsplit" : urllib.parse.urlsplit,
     "datetime" : datetime.datetime,
diff --git a/test/test_util.py b/test/test_util.py
index d5b9784f92..b7684601dc 100644
--- a/test/test_util.py
+++ b/test/test_util.py
@@ -319,6 +319,23 @@ def test_unique_sequence(self):
         self.assertSequenceEqual(
             list(util.unique_sequence([1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1])), [1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1])
 
+    def test_contains(self):
+        c = [1, "2", 3, 4, "5", "foo"]
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(c, 1))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(c, "foo"))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(c, [1, 3, "5"]))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(c, ["a", "b", "5"]))
+        self.assertFalse(util.contains(c, "bar"))
+        self.assertFalse(util.contains(c, [2, 5, "bar"]))
+
+        s = "1, 2, 3, asd, qwe, yxc, foo, bar"
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(s, 2))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(s, "asd"))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(s, ["asd", "qwe", "yxc"]))
+        self.assertTrue(util.contains(s, ["sdf", "dfg", "qwe"]))
+        self.assertFalse(util.contains(s, "tag1"))
+        self.assertFalse(util.contains(s, ["tag1", "tag2", "tag3"]))
+
     def test_raises(self):
         func = util.raises(Exception)
         with self.assertRaises(Exception):