diff --git a/Lib/pydoc.py b/Lib/pydoc.py
index 7d52359c9a0ce9..4014a2f54a5549 100755
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py
@@ -2230,6 +2230,8 @@ def run(self, callback, key=None, completer=None, onerror=None):
                 except SyntaxError:
                     # raised by tests for bad coding cookies or BOM
                     continue
+                if spec is None:
+                    continue
                 loader = spec.loader
                 if hasattr(loader, 'get_source'):
                     try:
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2022-01-12-14-10-42.bpo-46353.wSHF5T.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2022-01-12-14-10-42.bpo-46353.wSHF5T.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..cfc77f35318325
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2022-01-12-14-10-42.bpo-46353.wSHF5T.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Skip scan of modules that fail to load during keyword search in
+:mod:`pydoc`.