diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/parallel.c b/src/backend/access/transam/parallel.c
index 4a2e352d57..0c86543d40 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/parallel.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/parallel.c
@@ -230,6 +230,15 @@ InitializeParallelDSM(ParallelContext *pcxt)
 	shm_toc_estimate_chunk(&pcxt->estimator, sizeof(FixedParallelState));
 	shm_toc_estimate_keys(&pcxt->estimator, 1);
 
+	/*
+	 * If we manage to reach here while non-interruptible, it's unsafe to
+	 * launch any workers: we would fail to process interrupts sent by them.
+	 * We can deal with that edge case by pretending no workers were
+	 * requested.
+	 */
+	if (!INTERRUPTS_CAN_BE_PROCESSED())
+		pcxt->nworkers = 0;
+
 	/*
 	 * Normally, the user will have requested at least one worker process, but
 	 * if by chance they have not, we can skip a bunch of things here.
diff --git a/src/backend/optimizer/plan/planner.c b/src/backend/optimizer/plan/planner.c
index 3e3f0d486a..1f78dc3d53 100644
--- a/src/backend/optimizer/plan/planner.c
+++ b/src/backend/optimizer/plan/planner.c
@@ -342,11 +342,6 @@ standard_planner(Query *parse, const char *query_string, int cursorOptions,
 	 * we want to allow parallel inserts in general; updates and deletes have
 	 * additional problems especially around combo CIDs.)
 	 *
-	 * We don't try to use parallel mode unless interruptible.  The leader
-	 * expects ProcessInterrupts() calls to reach HandleParallelMessages().
-	 * Even if we called HandleParallelMessages() another way, starting a
-	 * parallel worker is too delay-prone to be prudent when uncancellable.
-	 *
 	 * For now, we don't try to use parallel mode if we're running inside a
 	 * parallel worker.  We might eventually be able to relax this
 	 * restriction, but for now it seems best not to have parallel workers
@@ -357,7 +352,6 @@ standard_planner(Query *parse, const char *query_string, int cursorOptions,
 		parse->commandType == CMD_SELECT &&
 		!parse->hasModifyingCTE &&
 		max_parallel_workers_per_gather > 0 &&
-		INTERRUPTS_CAN_BE_PROCESSED() &&
 		!IsParallelWorker())
 	{
 		/* all the cheap tests pass, so scan the query tree */