Buzz
In her review of the 1991 family comedy Ernest Scared Stupid, The Washington Post's film critic Rita Kempley referred to the main character, the lovable but clueless Ernest P. Worrell, as 'the global village idiot.' Portrayed by Kentucky’s Jim Varney, Ernest was the star of a 10-film series that featured him mistakenly thrown in jail (Ernest Goes to Jail), joining the military (Ernest in the Army), standing in for a hurt Santa (Ernest Saves Christmas), and even going back to school to earn his high school diploma (Ernest Goes to School).
Unlike other slapstick stars like Yahoo Serious and Pauly Shore, Varney took a far less conventional path to cinematic fame. Together with advertising guru John Cherry III, Varney introduced the Ernest character through a series of regional TV commercials. Ernest appeared in over 6,000 spots, promoting everything from ice cream to used cars. The commercials became so beloved that by the time his first feature, 1987's Ernest Goes to Camp, debuted, Ernest already had a dedicated fan club with 20,000 members.
Varney and Ernest became inseparable, to the point where the actor dreaded going on dates, fearing that Ernest fans might approach him. He occasionally resorted to disguises to avoid being recognized. While Varney had the ability to quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat, he rarely had the chance to showcase his broader acting range beyond the iconic, denim-jacketed character. For this reason, although he was thankful for Ernest's popularity, Varney often described it as a 'mixed blessing,' a sentiment that would tragically be reflected in one of his earliest commercials.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1949, Varney spent his formative years being scolded by teachers who believed his passion for theater was distracting him from his academic studies in math and science. Varney, however, felt differently, dropping out of high school just two weeks before graduation (he would return in the fall to receive his diploma) and heading to New York with $65 in his pocket and a dream of performing.
The off-Broadway productions Varney joined weren’t financially rewarding, so he began shuttling back and forth between Kentucky and California. During lean times, he drove a truck, but when his luck turned, he appeared in TV shows like Petticoat Junction. It was during one of his breaks from Hollywood that he met Cherry, who cast him as the tough military instructor, Sergeant Glory, in an ad for a Nashville car dealership.
In 1981, Cherry invited Varney back to film another commercial—this time for a rundown amusement park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Cherry thought the park was so unimpressive that he didn’t want to feature it on screen. Instead, he created Ernest P. Worrell, a fast-talking, often clueless local who constantly bothered his neighbor, Vern. Ernest’s catchphrase, 'Know what I mean, Vern?' was born.
The ad became an instant hit, and soon Varney and Cherry were producing commercials for Purity Dairies, pizza parlors, convenience stores, and more local businesses. In each commercial, Ernest would address the camera, sharing Vern's perspective, and promote the business in question—usually only stopping when Vern figured out how to get him out of sight.
Though the Purity commercials initially drew complaints—due to the wide-angle lens that made Ernest appear menacing to some children—his popularity soared, and Varney became a rare phenomenon in advertising: a mascot without a permanent corporate affiliation. Varney and Cherry would film up to 26 spots in a single day, each targeted to a specific region. In certain areas, people would call TV stations asking when the next Ernest commercial would air. A Toyota dealership in Fairfax, Virginia, saw a 50 percent sales increase after Varney began appearing in their ads.
Having filmed thousands of commercials across numerous markets, Varney once remarked that if those ads had been national, he and Cherry would have been incredibly wealthy. However, local commercials had local budgets, and the times Ernest was chosen for a major campaign were often blocked by exclusivity agreements: Varney and Cherry had to turn down Chevrolet because of competing local car dealership contracts.
Despite these limitations, Varney earned enough to purchase a 10-acre property in Kentucky. He expressed contentment with Ernest's reception and happily signed a four-film contract with Disney’s Touchstone Pictures for a series of Ernest movies. Released regularly between 1987 and 1998, the films were modest successes (Ernest Goes to Camp earned $28 million), before Cherry—who directed many of them—and Varney chose to break away and embrace a direct-to-video distribution model.
Varney once told the Sun Sentinel in 1985, 'It's like Oz, and the Wizard ain't home,' as he looked forward to greater autonomy. 'Hollywood is a place where everything begins but nothing originates. It's this big bunch of egos slamming into each other.'
Varney was sometimes hesitant to openly admit that he had ambitions beyond Ernest, fearing his love for Shakespeare and his desire to play Hamlet would seem like a stereotypical story of a clown aspiring to seriousness. He appeared in 1994’s The Beverly Hillbillies and voiced Slinky Dog in 1995’s Toy Story, but Ernest would remain his signature character.
The movies continued through 1998, when Varney began to notice a persistent cough. It was eventually diagnosed as lung cancer. Ironically, Varney had filmed an anti-smoking PSA as Ernest in the 1980s, though he was a chain smoker in his personal life. He passed away from cancer in 2000 at age 50, ending a series of upcoming Ernest projects, including Ernest Goes to Space and Ernest and the Voodoo Curse.
While Varney may not have had the chance to explore a broader range of roles, he did earn recognition for the one he had truly perfected. In 1989, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Performer in a children’s series, thanks to his role on the CBS Saturday morning show Hey, Vern: It’s Ernest!
In 1991, he shared his thoughts with the Orlando Sentinel, saying, 'It’s a blessing and a curse, because it's as difficult to break free from it as it is to get into it.'
