The Story Behind Legendary Gunfighter Doc Holliday's Alleged Last Words

Doc Holliday later parted ways with his friend Wyatt Earp and moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a few years before his death. Like his late mother, Holliday tragically developed tuberculosis, and it was only getting worse with every passing year (via Biograpghy). According to Visit Glenwood Springs, Holliday was bedridden at the Hotel Glenwood when he died on November 8, 1887, just after purportedly uttering his final words, "This is funny."

For such a historical figure of the Old West, it's not surprising that Doc Holliday has his fair share of legend. Per stories passed down, Holliday had always told his friends that he was destined to die in a haze of bullets like a true gunslinger, though as the waning days brought him closer and closer to the threshold between life and death, it became quite apparent that it wasn't going to happen that way.

Doc Holliday's alleged last words, "This is funny," were sort of a sardonic remark on the situation, and while he didn't necessarily die staring down the barrel of an enemy gun, he did die staring death straight in the face and laughing all the while. Another possible explanation that puts Holliday's final words into context is that he had believed he would die with his boots on (via Visit Glenwood Springs); hence, his deathbed scene in "Tombstone" that portrayed Holliday looking down at his bare feet before laughing to himself and saying, "I'll be damned ... This is funny."