diff --git a/lib/wt2html/tt/TemplateHandler.js b/lib/wt2html/tt/TemplateHandler.js
index 2ba19899d..ed0794344 100644
--- a/lib/wt2html/tt/TemplateHandler.js
+++ b/lib/wt2html/tt/TemplateHandler.js
@@ -481,13 +481,19 @@ TemplateHandler.prototype.resolveTemplateTarget = function(state, targetToks) {
 			// Strip ":" after skipping empty tokens, if any
 			if (isPF) {
 				while (firstTok === '') {
-					firstTok = targetToks[0];  // FIXME: Isn't guaranteed to be a string
+					firstTok = targetToks[0];
 					targetToks = targetToks.slice(1);
 				}
-				console.assert(firstTok[0] === ':', 'Expecting : in parser function definiton');
-				firstTok = firstTok.slice(1);
+				if (typeof firstTok === 'string') {
+					console.assert(firstTok[0] === ':', 'Expecting : in parser function definiton');
+					pfArgToks = [firstTok.slice(1)].concat(targetToks);
+				} else {
+					// FIXME: Again, protect from crashers.  See below.
+					pfArgToks = targetToks;
+				}
+			} else {
+				pfArgToks = [firstTok].concat(targetToks);
 			}
-			pfArgToks = [firstTok].concat(targetToks);
 		} else {
 			// FIXME: In the scenario where the target itself is not a string,
 			// protect from crashers by using the full token -- this is still