diff --git a/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish b/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
index ff7668912..f968a0b8d 100644
--- a/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
+++ b/share/functions/__fish_print_help.fish
@@ -1,11 +1,4 @@
 function __fish_print_help --description "Print help message for the specified fish function or builtin" --argument item
-    # special support for builtin_help_get()
-    set -l tty_width 0
-    if test "$item" = "--tty-width"
-        set tty_width $argv[2]
-        set item $argv[3]
-    end
-
     if test "$item" = '.'
         set item source
     end
@@ -17,22 +10,8 @@ function __fish_print_help --description "Print help message for the specified f
 
     # Render help output, save output into the variable 'help'
     set -l help
-    set -l cols
+    set -l cols $COLUMNS
     set -l rLL
-    if test "$tty_width" -gt 0
-        set cols $tty_width
-    else if command test -t 1
-        # We want to simulate `man`'s dynamic line length, because
-        # defaulting to 80 kind of sucks.
-        # Note: using `command test` instead of `test` because `test -t 1`
-        # doesn't seem to work right.
-        # Note: grab the size from the stdout terminal in case it's somehow
-        # different than the stdin of fish.
-        # use fd 3 to copy our stdout because we need to pipe the output of stty
-        begin
-            stty size 0<&3 | read __ cols
-        end 3<&1
-    end
     if test -n "$cols"
         set cols (math $cols - 4) # leave a bit of space on the right
         set rLL -rLL=$cols[1]n
diff --git a/src/builtin.cpp b/src/builtin.cpp
index 62dd4623e..6a7dd487d 100644
--- a/src/builtin.cpp
+++ b/src/builtin.cpp
@@ -169,12 +169,6 @@ wcstring builtin_help_get(parser_t &parser, io_streams_t &streams, const wchar_t
     wcstring out;
     const wcstring name_esc = escape_string(name, 1);
     wcstring cmd = format_string(L"__fish_print_help %ls", name_esc.c_str());
-    if (!streams.out_is_redirected && isatty(STDOUT_FILENO)) {
-        // since we're using a subshell, __fish_print_help can't tell we're in
-        // a terminal. Tell it ourselves.
-        int cols = common_get_width();
-        cmd = format_string(L"__fish_print_help --tty-width %d %ls", cols, name_esc.c_str());
-    }
     if (exec_subshell(cmd, lst, false /* don't apply exit status */) >= 0) {
         for (size_t i = 0; i < lst.size(); i++) {
             out.append(lst.at(i));