Python search help menu doc pydoc render_doc

Question

I want to search the python help menu inside python fns. I mostly want to search fn names and signatures (type annotations included).

    def foo(x: str) -> int:
      """foo doesn't do much"""
      return 42

In repl type help(foo) or pydoc.help(foo). Both yield the same. Toggles to an interactive view. See this:

    Help on function foo in module __main__:

    foo(x: str) -> int
        foo doesn't do much

This is a nice help menu. I want to parse and search it for arbitrary help() queries. Find pydoc.render_doc for this purpose. Find the output is not nice.

    >>> pydoc.render_doc(foo)
    "Python Library Documentation: function foo in module __main__\n\nf\x08fo\x08oo\x08o(x: str) -> int\n    foo doesn't do much\n"

See those byte chars or something? How do I parse this? How can I search it? Even the fn name looks obfuscated?