As far as I can tell, http://bugs.python.org/issue17911 made a couple of function in traceback ignore their first arguments (etype) and infer the type from the second one (evalue). 

(In git 6bc2c1e7 and 2f0441f0 respectively).

At least print_exception and format_exception are affected.

This likely affect http://bugs.python.org/issue26389 (who wish to expand same API to remove these parameters).

And inconsistency with `format_exception_only` which does need `etype` should be checked. 

If etype is a deprecated parameter it should be noted, and should likely raise a DeprecationWarning as well when set.

New changeset cdb89cd72cbc66e4626914b4a71b9052ddb3a32a by Mariatta (Matthias Bussonnier) in branch 'master':
bpo-29660: traceback: Document that etype is ignored in some places. (GH-344)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/cdb89cd72cbc66e4626914b4a71b9052ddb3a32a

Thanks Matthias.

I can backport this later today.
Or do you want to do it? :)
You can use cherry_picker.py https://github.com/python/core-workflow/tree/master/cherry_picker

Thanks @Mariatta, I'll try to cherry-pick!

New changeset e417d12d728103445b8516a35f643536e401f120 by Mariatta (Matthias Bussonnier) in branch '3.6':
bpo-29660: traceback: Document that etype is ignored in some places. (GH-344) (GH-1913)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/e417d12d728103445b8516a35f643536e401f120

New changeset cca3d4aa25a7aea0cda90dd2aa012f58c85e7e24 by Mariatta (Matthias Bussonnier) in branch '3.5':
bpo-29660: traceback: Document that etype is ignored in some places. (GH-344) (GH-1914)
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/cca3d4aa25a7aea0cda90dd2aa012f58c85e7e24

Thanks :)