Episode 86 — Ernest Goes To Jail

[Booze Hammer 3]

You guys super over analyzed Ernest. Hilarious.

[NathanConrad 0]

Fantastic episode, loved this movie as a kid.

 

I run a Ernest fan twitter account @ErnestShoulda, basically a long funny list of movies Ernest should have starred it. CHECK IT OUT!

[Jamie Power 224]

I'm gonna have to chime and admit to a certain fondness for Ernest movies, from childhood viewings on VHS. Ernest Scared Stupid especially. Partly because, as ComedyGangBang mentioned, the troll was frickin' scary.

 

 

By the way, that's a child in his hand, transformed into a wooden doll. Its not an amusing Ernest transformation. That happens to children.

[Merkin Muffley 24]

I hate to admit this but I have Ernest goes to Africa in my collection but have never watched it. I guess I know what I have to do tonight.

[KimberlyRudd 1]

Not really a CORRECTION OR OMMISSION but ... no it is. OMMISSION on the part of the film makers.

 

Even Michael Richards' escaped convict character in Problem Child immediately nailed the kid's adoptive mom on busting out of jail. It's not rape, but it is sex and adultery in a child's movie.

[PuncturedJesus 354]

Part of me wishes I could revert to the age of 8 and watch this movie again.

[walterwoodsiv 215]

You didn't mention that Ernest managed to make a frighteningly accurate replica an assault rifle. The guards did not seem at all scared of the prisoner pointing a gun at them.

[Smigg 1488]

I have a theory on the Pink prison guard uniforms, I doubt it's even the reason why they used it, but it could explain it.

 

Pink has been used in prisons, because it is seen as a calming colour. Even today, pink is being used, either on the walls of the prison, or inmate uniforms, although, the latter is used more as a punishment.

[Scribbles 7]

So, about a year back, I met Richard Speight Jr., who played one of the bullies in Ernest Goes to Camp. I asked him if he had any anecdotes about working with Jim Varney. He said that he didn't interact much with him offscreen, as the kids mostly hung out with each other, and the adults did their own thing. But one day between takes, he was sitting down, and Jim Varney sat down next to him. And after a few seconds of awkward silence, Jim Varney gave him an amazing bit of unsolicited advice. He said, "Hey kid, if you're ever in a knife fight, slash, don't stab. A man can't fight back if he's holding his belly together."

[IHugKittens 53]

OMISSION:

 

I'm not 100% sure, and can't be bothered checking now, but I think Chuck and Bobby were actually twin brothers. They have appeared together in other Ernest films, and like Ernest, they got their start in advertising.

 

From Bill "Bobby" Byrge's Wikipedia:

In 1986, Byrge began appearing alongside longtime co-star Gailard Sartain in a series of "Me and My Brother Bobby" commercials, produced by the Nashville advertising company Carden and Cherry, the same company responsible for the Ernest P. Worrell commercials with Jim Varney. Basic premise was Sartain and Byrge were, "Twin brothers who didn't look anything alike", while the schtick was loud-mouth Chuck (Sartain) would endorse a certain product, and in some cases, would bungle something in the process, while his quiet and collected twin brother Bobby (Byrge) would mostly agree with whatever Chuck's sentiments were with a simple, yet enthusiastic nod.

 

So, Chuck and Bobby were the original "twin brothers who didn't look anything alike".

Suck it, Schwarzenegger and DeVito.

 

 

They made it clear in the film that they were brothers. When love interest enters the bank creepy mute brother blocks her way, silently asking for ID (I assume?) and tubby brother goes something like "Come on, show it to him, big deal, even I have to do it every day and I'm his brother". Not a direct quote but something along these lines.

[MondayCity 194]

Here's my theory about why they cut the last scene out of the DVD release. In the deleted scene, Ernest has a job as a bank clerk. However, at the start of the next movie ("Scared Stupid"), he is a sanitation engineer (I believe). Therefore, it would be impossible to assemble the movies "Godfather"-style without causing hopeless confusion about what happened in his professional life between the time he got out of jail and when he inadvertantly released the goblin.

 

By the way, I think the title should have been "Ernest Goes To Prison" (not "jail"). Would that have been a poor title for a kid's movie? The sequel could have been "Ernest Scared Straight."

 

Finally, I think that June indicated she has a knowledge of recidivism. Someone should update the chart.

[SarahGregory 3]

Here's my theory about why they cut the last scene out of the DVD release. In the deleted scene, Ernest has a job as a bank clerk. However, at the start of the next movie ("Scared Stupid"), he is a sanitation engineer (I believe). Therefore, it would be impossible to assemble the movies "Godfather"-style without causing hopeless confusion about what happened in his professional life between the time he got out of jail and when he inadvertantly released the goblin.

 

By the way, I think the title should have been "Ernest Goes To Prison" (not "jail"). Would that have been a poor title for a kid's movie? The sequel could have been "Ernest Scared Straight."

 

Finally, I think that June indicated she has a knowledge of recidivism. Someone should update the chart.

 

I am pretty sure that Ernest Saves Christmas was the third film between Goes to Jail and Scared Stupid....I don't remember what his job was in that movie though. I do remember him living in the junkyard in Scared Stupid though

[SarahGregory 3]

FYI- Ernest Scared Stupid attempts to answer why Ernest is so....stupid. His ancestors were cursed by the troll that each succeeding Worrell generation would be dumber than the last.

[SarahGregory 3]

I live in Lexington, KY and was here when they held the auction for Jim Varney's belongings. His sisters kept the daytime Emmys, but they were on display. The coolest thing for sale was his old Delorian.

[ERuShruggington 0]

I literally LOL'd at the pic of Ernest oozing sexuality (ink). Also, the guy on the left in the background looks like he could have fathered Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. And the chick looks like someone cut her face out of a magazine and pasted it in.

[Wien 401]

HDTGM the official winner of the rivalry against HIMYM. It was never a competition.

[Snake 165]

"If the take away is that an idiot could one day save your life....that is a bad lesson learned"

[IronMaiden4892 10]

Did the boxset include Africa? WTF is that one about?

Yes it did include Africa. Although, it's been so long since i'v watched it that I wouldn't be able to tell you anything wacky or crazy about it.(I don't remember anything the Wikipedia plot summary wouldn't say.) The only ones I really remember, are Camp, Christmas, and Scared Stupid(The Halloween one).

[registradus 4]

I haven't seen Ernest Goes To Jail, but Ernest Saves Christmas was on TV every year here in Australia. and I'm pretty sure he got electrocuted in that movie as well...

[Somebody 12]

Lesley... didn't seem all there

I just felt like June found her soul mate.

[IMAHUGEHDTGMFAN 1837]

I literally LOL'd at the pic of Ernest oozing sexuality (ink). Also, the guy on the left in the background looks like he could have fathered Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. And the chick looks like someone cut her face out of a magazine and pasted it in.

 

That is not the original screenshot... Thats the face of June Diane Raphael photoshopped over a female jury member...

 

[Homer 64]

This is the best podcast in all of North America.

[AaronSteinmetz 8]

I realized while listening to your podcast the chief difference between Ernest Goes to Jail and the other three Ernest movies: children. Ernest Goes to Camp, Saves Christmas and Scared Stupid all prominently featured children in leading roles alongside Ernest. Goes to Jail? Not a child to be found.

 

Thing is, Ernest, bumbling and failing left and right, works when he has children to play off of, especially when the children provide the solution to the problems. The child becomes the adult and the adult becomes the child. Comedy! Remove children from the equation and you've got an adult behaving like a child around other adults. Doesn't work.

 

Of course I say that knowing full well I was the very target audience when I watched it and I loved it. A lot. I saw this movie with my mother in the theater as a dual feature alongside Spaced Invaders and I loved them both. My mother, evidently, really loved me.

[xoValeriexo 4369]

It annoys me so much when they analyze a silly movie like the movie isn't intentionally silly. "Oh, so the laws of gravity don't apply to him?" Yeah, it's supposed to be silly, you goddamn weirdo. I remember this happening a lot in Jingle All the Way where I was just yelling at my computer "Yeah, that's the joke!"

 

I thought this movie was great. Ernest is wonderful and loveable and a dummy.

 

Oh my god in Ernest Scared Stupid when Ernest says "I guess there's nothing in that bag for me" I cry every fucking time. If you don't like Ernest, I don't like you.

[Solid Muldoon 1]

Why do I get no love for naming The Howdies? I was first. Seriously. You can look it up.