diff --git a/kernel/rcu/update.c b/kernel/rcu/update.c
index f203b94f6b5b..cb26de25658a 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/update.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/update.c
@@ -822,7 +822,8 @@ static int __init rcu_spawn_tasks_kthread(void)
 	struct task_struct *t;
 
 	t = kthread_run(rcu_tasks_kthread, NULL, "rcu_tasks_kthread");
-	BUG_ON(IS_ERR(t));
+	if (WARN_ONCE(IS_ERR(t), "%s: Could not start Tasks-RCU grace-period kthread, OOM is now expected behavior\n", __func__))
+		return 0;
 	smp_mb(); /* Ensure others see full kthread. */
 	WRITE_ONCE(rcu_tasks_kthread_ptr, t);
 	return 0;