diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/deepcopy-alternative.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/deepcopy-alternative.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3229824a5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/deepcopy-alternative.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+- replace copy.deepcopy in high workload areas with a custom function to improve performance (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/44337)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
index 94644981bc..2b622db344 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/executor/task_executor.py
@@ -629,6 +629,7 @@ class TaskExecutor:
                 if self._task.action in ('set_fact', 'include_vars'):
                     vars_copy.update(result['ansible_facts'])
                 else:
+                    # TODO: cleaning of facts should eventually become part of taskresults instead of vars
                     vars_copy.update(namespace_facts(result['ansible_facts']))
                     if C.INJECT_FACTS_AS_VARS:
                         vars_copy.update(clean_facts(result['ansible_facts']))
@@ -690,6 +691,7 @@ class TaskExecutor:
             if self._task.action in ('set_fact', 'include_vars'):
                 variables.update(result['ansible_facts'])
             else:
+                # TODO: cleaning of facts should eventually become part of taskresults instead of vars
                 variables.update(namespace_facts(result['ansible_facts']))
                 if C.INJECT_FACTS_AS_VARS:
                     variables.update(clean_facts(result['ansible_facts']))
diff --git a/lib/ansible/executor/task_result.py b/lib/ansible/executor/task_result.py
index ba5bc93f2d..d5eb10107c 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/executor/task_result.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/executor/task_result.py
@@ -5,11 +5,9 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
-from copy import deepcopy
-
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible.parsing.dataloader import DataLoader
-from ansible.vars.clean import strip_internal_keys
+from ansible.vars.clean import module_response_deepcopy, strip_internal_keys
 
 _IGNORE = ('failed', 'skipped')
 _PRESERVE = ('attempts', 'changed', 'retries')
@@ -131,7 +129,7 @@ class TaskResult:
 
             result._result = x
         elif self._result:
-            result._result = deepcopy(self._result)
+            result._result = module_response_deepcopy(self._result)
 
             # actualy remove
             for remove_key in ignore:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/vars/clean.py b/lib/ansible/vars/clean.py
index 64bb042054..7b29383c2e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/vars/clean.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/vars/clean.py
@@ -8,11 +8,9 @@ __metaclass__ = type
 import os
 import re
 
-from copy import deepcopy
-
 from ansible import constants as C
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
-from ansible.module_utils.six import string_types
+from ansible.module_utils import six
 from ansible.plugins.loader import connection_loader
 
 try:
@@ -22,6 +20,53 @@ except ImportError:
     display = Display()
 
 
+def module_response_deepcopy(v):
+    """Function to create a deep copy of module response data
+
+    Designed to be used within the Ansible "engine" to improve performance
+    issues where ``copy.deepcopy`` was used previously, largely with CPU
+    and memory contention.
+
+    This only supports the following data types, and was designed to only
+    handle specific workloads:
+
+    * ``dict``
+    * ``list``
+
+    The data we pass here will come from a serialization such
+    as JSON, so we shouldn't have need for other data types such as
+    ``set`` or ``tuple``.
+
+    Take note that this function should not be used extensively as a
+    replacement for ``deepcopy`` due to the naive way in which this
+    handles other data types.
+
+    Do not expect uses outside of those listed below to maintain
+    backwards compatibility, in case we need to extend this function
+    to handle our specific needs:
+
+    * ``ansible.executor.task_result.TaskResult.clean_copy``
+    * ``ansible.vars.clean.clean_facts``
+    * ``ansible.vars.namespace_facts``
+    """
+    if isinstance(v, dict):
+        ret = v.copy()
+        items = six.iteritems(ret)
+    elif isinstance(v, list):
+        ret = v[:]
+        items = enumerate(ret)
+    else:
+        return v
+
+    for key, value in items:
+        if isinstance(value, (dict, list)):
+            ret[key] = module_response_deepcopy(value)
+        else:
+            ret[key] = value
+
+    return ret
+
+
 def strip_internal_keys(dirty, exceptions=None):
     '''
     All keys starting with _ansible_ are internal, so create a copy of the 'dirty' dict
@@ -32,7 +77,7 @@ def strip_internal_keys(dirty, exceptions=None):
         exceptions = ()
     clean = dirty.copy()
     for k in dirty.keys():
-        if isinstance(k, string_types) and k.startswith('_ansible_'):
+        if isinstance(k, six.string_types) and k.startswith('_ansible_'):
             if k not in exceptions:
                 del clean[k]
         elif isinstance(dirty[k], dict):
@@ -57,7 +102,7 @@ def remove_internal_keys(data):
 
 def clean_facts(facts):
     ''' remove facts that can override internal keys or otherwise deemed unsafe '''
-    data = deepcopy(facts)
+    data = module_response_deepcopy(facts)
 
     remove_keys = set()
     fact_keys = set(data.keys())
@@ -113,8 +158,8 @@ def namespace_facts(facts):
     for k in facts:
         if k in ('ansible_local',):
             # exceptions to 'deprefixing'
-            deprefixed[k] = deepcopy(facts[k])
+            deprefixed[k] = module_response_deepcopy(facts[k])
         else:
-            deprefixed[k.replace('ansible_', '', 1)] = deepcopy(facts[k])
+            deprefixed[k.replace('ansible_', '', 1)] = module_response_deepcopy(facts[k])
 
     return {'ansible_facts': deprefixed}
diff --git a/lib/ansible/vars/manager.py b/lib/ansible/vars/manager.py
index 9e93873298..7ac85f5a25 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/vars/manager.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/vars/manager.py
@@ -307,6 +307,7 @@ class VariableManager:
             all_vars = combine_vars(all_vars, _plugins_play([host]))
 
             # finally, the facts caches for this host, if it exists
+            # TODO: cleaning of facts should eventually become part of taskresults instead of vars
             try:
                 facts = wrap_var(self._fact_cache.get(host.name, {}))
                 all_vars.update(namespace_facts(facts))
diff --git a/test/units/vars/test_module_response_deepcopy.py b/test/units/vars/test_module_response_deepcopy.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1fdaf7a4b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/units/vars/test_module_response_deepcopy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# (c) 2018 Matt Martz <matt@sivel.net>
+# GNU General Public License v3.0+ (see COPYING or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt)
+
+from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+from ansible.vars.clean import module_response_deepcopy
+
+import pytest
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_basic():
+    x = 42
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert y == x
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_atomic():
+    tests = [None, 42, 2**100, 3.14, True, False, 1j,
+             "hello", "hello\u1234"]
+    for x in tests:
+        assert module_response_deepcopy(x) is x
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_list():
+    x = [[1, 2], 3]
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert y == x
+    assert x is not y
+    assert x[0] is not y[0]
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_empty_tuple():
+    x = ()
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert x is y
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skip(reason='No current support for this situation')
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_tuple():
+    x = ([1, 2], 3)
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert y == x
+    assert x is not y
+    assert x[0] is not y[0]
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_tuple_of_immutables():
+    x = ((1, 2), 3)
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert x is y
+
+
+def test_module_response_deepcopy_dict():
+    x = {"foo": [1, 2], "bar": 3}
+    y = module_response_deepcopy(x)
+    assert y == x
+    assert x is not y
+    assert x["foo"] is not y["foo"]