diff --git a/bin/ansible b/bin/ansible
index a02c5bc1745..ccd6bb8e179 100755
--- a/bin/ansible
+++ b/bin/ansible
@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@ import os
 import sys
 import traceback
 
+# for debug
+from multiprocessing import Lock
+debug_lock = Lock()
+
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError, AnsibleOptionsError, AnsibleParserError
 from ansible.utils.display import Display
 from ansible.utils.unicode import to_unicode
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
index e94c8f0397b..c1f5d20ad71 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
@@ -31,23 +31,28 @@ import getpass
 import errno
 from struct import unpack, pack
 from termios import TIOCGWINSZ
-from multiprocessing import Lock
 
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError
 from ansible.utils.color import stringc
 from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes, to_unicode
 
+try:
+    from __main__ import debug_lock
+except ImportError:
+    # for those not using a CLI, though ...
+    # this might not work well after fork
+    from multiprocessing import Lock
+    debug_lock = Lock()
+
 try:
     # Python 2
     input = raw_input
 except NameError:
-    # Python 3
+    # Python 3, we already have raw_input
     pass
 
 
-# These are module level as we currently fork and serialize the whole process and locks in the objects don't play well with that
-debug_lock = Lock()
 
 logger = None
 #TODO: make this a logging callback instead