“This is funny” are the last words of Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday in Tombstone, and there’s a good reason he finds things so amusing. Tombstone was one of two competing biopics about legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, with Kevin Costner’s rival movie having a much larger budget. Ultimately, Tombstone won out by not only being released first but having a superior screenplay and outstanding performances. Val Kilmer’s work as Earp’s best friend Doc Holliday is worthy of particular praise, as he steals every scene he’s in no matter who he’s acting against.
The performance is considered one of Kilmer’s finest and ranges from hilarious to heartbreaking. The star was also given the movie’s best one-liners and quips, including “I’m your huckleberry” and “You’re a daisy if you do!” Not only does the film depict Doc’s time in the titular, but it also features his final days, where he lies bedridden and dying of tuberculosis. In Tombstone’s ending scenes, Kilmer’s Doc looks down to his bare feet and cryptically remarks “This is funny,” though the meaning behind this statement isn’t explained.
Doc Holliday Thought It Was Funny He Was Dying Barefoot
Given Doc’s violent history, he always thought he’d be killed in a gunfight with his boots on, like a regular cowboy. When he looks at his feet at the end of the film, it’s because he finds it funny that after the life he’s lived, he’s dying in a bed without his boots on. Within the story, the fact he was dying of tuberculosis seemed to give Holliday a certain fearlessness when it came to gunfights or confronting the likes of Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn), and it’s in keeping with this personality to find a wry irony that he would end up dying in a bed.
“This Is Funny” Were The Real Doc Holliday’s Last Words
Like any biopic, Tombstone takes big liberties with real-life events; while the actual gunfight at the O.K. Corral is said to have lasted all of 30 seconds, it becomes a more epic confrontation in the movie. Even so, “This is funny” is said to have been the real Doc Holliday’s final words before he died in 1887, which were overheard by an attending nurse. This came after she turned down his request for a shot of whiskey, and he looked down at his feet and made the remark about his bare feet.
While Tombstone shows Wyatt leaving Doc’s bedside moments before he dies, in reality, he wasn’t present and didn’t even learn of his friend’s passing at the age of 36 for another two months. If Kilmer looks convincingly cold and shivery in this final scene, that’s because he was lying on a bed of ice so Doc’s shaking would look more naturalistic.