re: Favorite or most likeable character in a series or movie

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Since they can’t put anything on the Internet that isn’t true, here are a couple of explanations.

Huckleberry is a derivation or slang of “Huckle bearer”. Meaning the handle (huckle) which was used in carrying caskets.

The obvious implication being that Doc would gladly be the man who carries Ringo in his coffin. Because he put them there.

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This isn't true. Was just a dumb rumor. Kilmer and the director have both shot this theory down numerous times. Kilmer even talked about it in his memoir.

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Despite persistent online rumors and myths, the phrase doesn’t have anything to do with huckle bearers, pallbearers or carrying someone’s casket. It sounds cool and is slightly more interesting than the term’s actual meaning, but there isn’t any real evidence to back it up.

And if you use that meaning in the context of the above examples, it makes even less sense. Do you want the best groceries in town? We’ll be your pallbearers!

Val Kilmer even addressed the rumor in his book, I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir.

“By the way, despite some fans’ contention that in the 1800s the handles of caskets were called huckles and thus word huckle bearer was a term for pall bearer, I do not say, ‘I’m your huckle bearer.’ I say, ‘I’m your huckleberry,’ connotating, ‘I’m your man. You’ve met your match.'”

The screenplay’s text says huckleberry, Kilmer named his book after the line, and countless newspaper articles use the phrase in the same context. So we can all be the huckle bearers of this rumor and put it in the ground for good.

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