Ernest P. Worrell

**Ernest P. Worrell** is a fictional character in a series of television commercials, and later in a television series (*Hey Vern, It's Ernest!*) as well as a series of feature films. He was created by the Nashville advertising agency Carden and Cherry and was used in various local television ad campaigns. The only national products he promoted were Coca-Cola, Sprite, Tab, Fanta Group's Mello Yello, Chex, and Taco John's. The first Ernest commercial, filmed in 1980, advertised an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders at Beech Bend Park, an amusement park near Bowling Green, Kentucky. The format of the commercials seldom varied. The rubber-faced Ernest, almost always dressed in a denim vest and baseball cap, appeared at the door of an unseen and unheard but seemingly unwilling neighbor named Vern. The spots were structured in a way to allow the viewer to be "Vern", as Ernest looked directly in the camera whenever Vern was addressed. Ernest's seemingly pointless conversations with Vern – which were actually a monologue due to Vern never responding – inevitably rambled around to a favorable description of the sponsor's product, followed by his signature close, "KnowhutImean?" While Vern is never shown to ever say anything, it is implied that he finds Ernest to be an unwelcome pest due to him trying to slam his door in Ernest's face on a few occasions. Vern also shakes his head "no" whenever Ernest invites him to do something. Ernest, despite having good intentions, is utterly oblivious to Vern's apparent distress regarding him and always regards Vern as his closest buddy and confidant.

## History

The Ernest ads were shot with a handheld film camera at the Nashville-area home of producer John Cherry and Jerry Carden. As their number of clients increased, Jim Varney sometimes did upwards of 25 different versions of a spot in a single day, due to his photographic memory...he would read through the script one time then insert the various products names on different takes. The commercials and the character had definite impact; children especially seemed to imitate Ernest and *"KnowhutImean?"* became a catchphrase. A television series, *Hey Vern, It's Ernest!*, and a series of theatrically released motion pictures followed. Although the television series won Varney a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance, the movies were not critically well-received; however, the latter were produced on very low budgets and were quite profitable. In the films, Ernest is apparently somewhat aware of his extreme resistance to harm, as in *Ernest Rides Again*, he seemed barely fazed by nails bending after being fired at his skull, remarking 'Good thing they hit the hard end,' he also commented that he would be dead "If I wasn't this close to being an actual cartoon." Varney in his Ernest role appeared in dozens of Cerritos Auto Square commercials for many years on Los Angeles area television stations, along with commercials for Audubon Chrysler Center in Henderson, Kentucky, John L. Sullivan auto dealerships in the Sacramento, California area, the Pontiac, Michigan-based electronics store ABC Warehouse, and the Oklahoma City-based Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Store. In the Southeast, the Ernest character was the spokesman for Purity milk. In 2005, after Varney's death, the Ernest character returned in new commercials as a CGI cartoon, created by an animation company called face2face and produced by Ernest originators Carden & Cherry. Ernest was voiced by John C. Hudgens, an advertising and broadcast producer from Little Rock, Arkansas, who also played an Ernest type character in some regional live action commercials.

## Family

Ernest has a large family made up of people with similar traits to him, almost all of whom were portrayed by Jim Varney. One rare occasion he was not played by Varney was in a Disneyland Splash Mountain special where in a flashback he recalled his father taking him to Disneyland, where Varney played Ernest's father and a child actor played the young Ernest. Varney, as Ernest, mentioned that his family was from Kentucky when he hosted *Happy New Year, America* on CBS December 31, 1988. Most of his family members had their appearance in either *Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album* and *Your World as I See It*.

### The Worrell Family

* **Edna Worrell**: Ernest's second wife according to the television commercials and *Hey Vern, It's My Family Album*. According to Ernest, Edna makes a great deep dish pie. Her middle initial is also said to be P. in Ernest's newsletter during the 1980s.
* **Ace Worrell**: A fighter pilot who served in the army. His relation to Ernest is unknown though he is believed to be a great uncle.
* **Jennifer Sharkey Worrell**: Ernest's deceased first wife.
* **Astor Clement**: Ernest's uncle, a wealthy college professor who likes to brag about his rich status and unusual intelligence and was the main narrator of *Your World As I See It*. Astor was also one of Ernest's disguises in *Ernest Saves Christmas*.
* **Bunny Worrell**: The slow-witted and confused sister of Ernest who runs her own quirky hair salon called "Bunny's Beauty World."
* **Lloyd Worrell**: Ernest's bitter great uncle. He was Ernest's disguise as "The Snake Guy" in *Ernest Saves Christmas*.
* **Auntie Nelda**: Ernest's dramatic great aunt who is not on good terms with her son Izzy and often acts like the death of her husband, Morris, was a blessing. She tries to get men to notice her by acting innocent all the time. She was also one of Ernest's "multiple personalities" in *Ernest Scared Stupid* and one of his disguises in *Ernest Saves Christmas*, *Ernest Goes to Jail*, *Ernest Rides Again*, and *Ernest Goes to Africa*.
* **Coy Worrell**: Ernest's hillbilly brother who runs a store that sells car parts. He often chases women and is quite proud of the tattoo collection on his body. Coy has been married at least twice: first to Rayette Worrell and then to Anita Worrell.
* **Billy Boogie Worrell**: Ernest's cousin who operates a ride at an amusement park called The Scrambler. He is talented in music and dancing, but still manages to scare people with his crass and unstable personality.
* **Davy Worrell**: Ernest's light-headed great, great uncle who was a war veteran in the late 19th century. He helped his army troop win a battle against a Native American tribe led by Chief Running Vern, even though his troop wasn't even present at the time. He is a spoof of frontiersman Davy Crockett.
* **Retch Worrell**: Ernest's great, great-grandfather who was popular with women and had a girlfriend named Verna. He was a heavy gambler and incredibly stupid.
* **Pa Worrell**: Ernest's elderly father, a World War II veteran who has a politically incorrect view of the world. His first name is never revealed. He's an avid fisherman and is friends with an African savage named Qui Qua. When taking young Ernest to Disneyland, he was shown to be quite nerdy and exacting, going through every point of a turnstile for example when Ernest remarked to him that they could simply run through as it was empty.
* **Ma Worrell**: Ernest's elderly mother. She is known to be a good cook and according to Ernest she used to make a great chocolate milk, which is Ernest's favorite drink.
* **Reverend Phineas Worrell**: An English ancestor of Ernest in "Ernest Scared Stupid". He helped villagers of Briarville, Missouri banish a troll named Trantor, who Ernest accidentally released several generations later.
* **Stephanie P. Worrell**: Ernest's aunt from the television series. She had thick glasses and cried a lot.
* **Ernie P. Worrell**: Ernest's son. Only mentioned once by Ernest while answering fan mail in his own newsletter.
* **Denton Rose**: Ernest's best friend from school. Denton as noted on the Official Ernest P Worrell Facebook page was indeed Ernest's best pal growing up. In later years, Ernest went missing. Now, John R Cherry III planned to have Denton Rose Investigator of the Paranormal find out what happened to his old pal.

## Pets

Ernest also had several pets during the course of his career. They are listed below in order of appearance.

* **Shorty** : Ernest's first dog. She appeared in several commercials usually having given birth to a litter of puppies in the back of Vern's new pick up truck while out driving with Ernest. His exact breed is unknown as she was portrayed by a different breed in each of her appearances. In the *Hey Vern, It's Ernest* episode "Hey Vern, It's Magic", he was a male and Vern's dog. He was portrayed by a Border Collie on the show.
* **Pokey**: A box turtle that Ernest had adopted from "actual nature" in *Ernest Goes to Camp*. Pokey and his family were used as "turtle paratroopers" during the battle with the miners toward the end of the movie.
* **Ants**: Ernest mentioned in *Ernest Goes to Camp* that he once had an ant farm.
* **Rimshot**: Ernest's second dog, a male Jack Russell Terrier. He is Ernest's best known pet. He is characterized as very smart. He was featured in two of the movies, *Ernest Goes to Jail* and *Ernest Scared Stupid*, in which he was also shown to be very brave and tough, as he would stand up to the main villains which would usually lead to his near demise.
* **Jake**: Ernest's Fantail (goldfish) in *Ernest Goes to Africa*. Sadly, he died when Ernest accidentally broke his fish bowl and then dropped him into the kitchen garbage disposal and mistakenly hit the wrong switch.
* **Lizard**: This is not really a pet but Ernest followed around a little lizard in the forest in the film *Ernest Rides Again*.

## Specials

* Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album (1983) (direct-to-video)
* *Ernest: Greatest Hits Volume One* (a.k.a. *The Ernest Film Festival*) (1986) (direct-to-video)
* *Hey Vern, Win $10,000...Or Just Count On Having Fun!* (1987) (direct-to-video)
* *Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain* (1989) (TV special)
* *Ernest: Greatest Hits Volume Two* (1992) (direct-to-video)
* *Your World As I See It* (1994) (direct-to-video)

## Films

* *Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam* (1986) (PG) — Cameo role
* *Ernest Goes to Camp* (1987) (PG)
* *Ernest Saves Christmas* (1988) (PG)
* *Ernest Goes to Jail* (1990) (PG)
* *Ernest Scared Stupid* (1991) (PG)
* *Ernest Rides Again* (1993) (PG)
* *Ernest Goes to School* (1994) (PG)
* *Slam Dunk Ernest* (1995) (PG)
* *Ernest Goes to Africa* (1997) (PG)
* *Ernest in the Army* (1998) (PG)
* Kamp Kikakee (2007) (Japanese Dub Of Ernest Goes To Camp) (PG)

## Parodies

Ernest has been parodied in numerous TV shows, including *Beavis & Butthead*, *Family Guy* and *The Simpsons And Sunday Night Live*. Some of the "fake" Ernest movies from *The Simpsons* include *Ernest Needs A Kidney*, *Ernest vs the Pope*, and *Ernest Goes Somewhere Cheap*. In the *Beavis and Butthead* episode "At the Movies", the boys are watching Ernest at the drive-in. He is inside the Statue of Liberty and comes across a door with a sign that reads "Do not enter." However, he misreads it as "donut entry" and opens it, falling through the statue's nose. In an episode of *Family Guy*, Peter Griffin can't decide which (fake) Ernest movie to rent: *Ernest Goes to the Beach* or *Ernest Doesn't Go to the Beach*. Sunday Night Live Parodied Ernest As Ernest Goes To White Castle, Ernest Meets Fred, Ernest Crazy Days, Ernest Goes To Michael Rosen

## Commercials on home video

Most of Ernest's commercials can be seen on VHS tapes from Warner Bros Home Entertainment, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures Home Video. Many are also available on DVD from Pathé Home Enterainment

## Merchandise

A paperback book, "The Ernest P. Worrell Book of Knawledge" (sic) was published by Camden and Cherry in 1986. A 16" Ernest talking doll was produced by Kenner in 1989.

## Reboot

In October 2012 a film reboot was announced, tentatively titled **Son of Ernest**. As suggested by the title it will focus on Ernest's long lost son, presumably Ernie P. Worrell as mentioned above.