diff --git a/pandas/core/groupby/groupby.py b/pandas/core/groupby/groupby.py
index 873a31e658625..fa4a184e8f7a4 100644
--- a/pandas/core/groupby/groupby.py
+++ b/pandas/core/groupby/groupby.py
@@ -899,10 +899,21 @@ def _python_agg_general(self, func, *args, **kwargs):
         output = {}
         for name, obj in self._iterate_slices():
             try:
-                result, counts = self.grouper.agg_series(obj, f)
+                # if this function is invalid for this dtype, we will ignore it.
+                func(obj[:0])
             except TypeError:
                 continue
-            else:
+            except AssertionError:
+                raise
+            except Exception:
+                # Our function depends on having a non-empty argument
+                #  See test_groupby_agg_err_catching
+                pass
+
+            result, counts = self.grouper.agg_series(obj, f)
+            if result is not None:
+                # TODO: only 3 test cases get None here, do something
+                #  in those cases
                 output[name] = self._try_cast(result, obj, numeric_only=True)
 
         if len(output) == 0:
diff --git a/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py b/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
index 2cc0e5fde2290..5bad73bf40ff5 100644
--- a/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
+++ b/pandas/core/groupby/ops.py
@@ -61,8 +61,7 @@ class BaseGrouper:
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    axis : int
-        the axis to group
+    axis : Index
     groupings : array of grouping
         all the grouping instances to handle in this grouper
         for example for grouper list to groupby, need to pass the list
@@ -78,8 +77,15 @@ class BaseGrouper:
     """
 
     def __init__(
-        self, axis, groupings, sort=True, group_keys=True, mutated=False, indexer=None
+        self,
+        axis: Index,
+        groupings,
+        sort=True,
+        group_keys=True,
+        mutated=False,
+        indexer=None,
     ):
+        assert isinstance(axis, Index), axis
         self._filter_empty_groups = self.compressed = len(groupings) != 1
         self.axis = axis
         self.groupings = groupings
@@ -623,7 +629,7 @@ def _aggregate_series_pure_python(self, obj, func):
         counts = np.zeros(ngroups, dtype=int)
         result = None
 
-        splitter = get_splitter(obj, group_index, ngroups, axis=self.axis)
+        splitter = get_splitter(obj, group_index, ngroups, axis=0)
 
         for label, group in splitter:
             res = func(group)
@@ -635,8 +641,12 @@ def _aggregate_series_pure_python(self, obj, func):
             counts[label] = group.shape[0]
             result[label] = res
 
-        result = lib.maybe_convert_objects(result, try_float=0)
-        # TODO: try_cast back to EA?
+        if result is not None:
+            # if splitter is empty, result can be None, in which case
+            #  maybe_convert_objects would raise TypeError
+            result = lib.maybe_convert_objects(result, try_float=0)
+            # TODO: try_cast back to EA?
+
         return result, counts
 
 
@@ -781,6 +791,11 @@ def groupings(self):
         ]
 
     def agg_series(self, obj: Series, func):
+        if is_extension_array_dtype(obj.dtype):
+            # pre-empty SeriesBinGrouper from raising TypeError
+            # TODO: watch out, this can return None
+            return self._aggregate_series_pure_python(obj, func)
+
         dummy = obj[:0]
         grouper = libreduction.SeriesBinGrouper(obj, func, self.bins, dummy)
         return grouper.get_result()
@@ -809,12 +824,13 @@ def _is_indexed_like(obj, axes) -> bool:
 
 
 class DataSplitter:
-    def __init__(self, data, labels, ngroups, axis=0):
+    def __init__(self, data, labels, ngroups, axis: int = 0):
         self.data = data
         self.labels = ensure_int64(labels)
         self.ngroups = ngroups
 
         self.axis = axis
+        assert isinstance(axis, int), axis
 
     @cache_readonly
     def slabels(self):
@@ -837,12 +853,6 @@ def __iter__(self):
         starts, ends = lib.generate_slices(self.slabels, self.ngroups)
 
         for i, (start, end) in enumerate(zip(starts, ends)):
-            # Since I'm now compressing the group ids, it's now not "possible"
-            # to produce empty slices because such groups would not be observed
-            # in the data
-            # if start >= end:
-            #     raise AssertionError('Start %s must be less than end %s'
-            #                          % (str(start), str(end)))
             yield i, self._chop(sdata, slice(start, end))
 
     def _get_sorted_data(self):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/groupby/aggregate/test_other.py b/pandas/tests/groupby/aggregate/test_other.py
index 5dad868c8c3aa..1c297f3e2ada3 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/groupby/aggregate/test_other.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/groupby/aggregate/test_other.py
@@ -602,3 +602,41 @@ def test_agg_lambda_with_timezone():
         columns=["date"],
     )
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "err_cls",
+    [
+        NotImplementedError,
+        RuntimeError,
+        KeyError,
+        IndexError,
+        OSError,
+        ValueError,
+        ArithmeticError,
+        AttributeError,
+    ],
+)
+def test_groupby_agg_err_catching(err_cls):
+    # make sure we suppress anything other than TypeError or AssertionError
+    #  in _python_agg_general
+
+    # Use a non-standard EA to make sure we don't go down ndarray paths
+    from pandas.tests.extension.decimal.array import DecimalArray, make_data, to_decimal
+
+    data = make_data()[:5]
+    df = pd.DataFrame(
+        {"id1": [0, 0, 0, 1, 1], "id2": [0, 1, 0, 1, 1], "decimals": DecimalArray(data)}
+    )
+
+    expected = pd.Series(to_decimal([data[0], data[3]]))
+
+    def weird_func(x):
+        # weird function that raise something other than TypeError or IndexError
+        #  in _python_agg_general
+        if len(x) == 0:
+            raise err_cls
+        return x.iloc[0]
+
+    result = df["decimals"].groupby(df["id1"]).agg(weird_func)
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected, check_names=False)