How do I export the output of Python's built-in help() function

If you do help(help) you'll see:

Help on _Helper in module site object:

class _Helper(__builtin__.object)
 |  Define the builtin 'help'.
 |  This is a wrapper around pydoc.help (with a twist).

[rest snipped]

So - you should be looking at the pydoc module - there's going to be a method or methods that return what help(something) does as a string...