diff --git a/scripts/memcheck.sh b/scripts/memcheck.sh
index df8c9d9..bcb050e 100755
--- a/scripts/memcheck.sh
+++ b/scripts/memcheck.sh
@@ -49,8 +49,20 @@ rm -f "$AKGL_MEMCHECK_LOG"/MemoryChecker.*.log
 # The run itself is allowed to fail: a suite that valgrind makes slow enough to
 # trip an assertion still produced a log worth reading, and the log is what
 # decides the exit status below.
+#
+# docs_examples and docs_screenshots are excluded, and the exclusion deserves
+# its reasons stated: those two tests are *shell scripts* that drive gcc and
+# run the compiled snippets as child processes. Valgrind wraps the test
+# command, does not trace children, and so spends the whole test memchecking
+# /bin/bash -- 413 of bash's own by-design leaks on the first CI run that got
+# this far, and not one byte of libakgl. The snippet programs themselves are
+# ordinary akgl consumers whose code paths the suites and example games
+# already cover below, under valgrind, as real binaries. A caller's own -E
+# overrides this one (ctest takes the last), which is fine: a narrowed run
+# chose its scope on purpose.
 set +e
-ctest --test-dir "$AKGL_BUILD_DIR" -T memcheck --output-on-failure "$@"
+ctest --test-dir "$AKGL_BUILD_DIR" -T memcheck --output-on-failure \
+      -E '^(docs_examples|docs_screenshots)$' "$@"
 AKGL_CTEST_STATUS=$?
 set -e