Oh, ok, so plainpager is probably marginally better.

Lib/pydoc.py

@@ -955,7 +955,7 @@ def getpager():
     if not sys.stdin.isatty() or not sys.stdout.isatty():
         return plainpager
     if os.environ.get('TERM') in ['dumb', 'emacs']:
-        return lambda text: sys.stdout.write(text)
+        return plainpager
     if os.environ.has_key('PAGER'):
         if sys.platform == 'win32': # pipes completely broken in Windows
             return lambda text: tempfilepager(plain(text), os.environ['PAGER'])