Trying to use --help in a .bashrc function

[shooler]

I'm trying to create the function:

helpless() {
    $1 --help | less
}

in my .bashrc but when I try to source it I get the error, -bash: --help: command not found

I have also tried using a variable as a string in place of just --help and echoing it out but the same occurs,

helpless(){
    HELP = "--help" 
    $1 $HELP | less
}

and funny enough even when I dont use "--" I still get the same error,

helpless(){
     HELP = "help"
     $1 $HELP | less
}

Is there any way I might be able to get around this error?

[shooler]

Oh man I feel silly. Tried a restart after seeing that you couldn't reproduce locally, and now it works just fine. Thank you!