He was also an excellent villain too and I'm not just talking about 3 Ninjas 3.

me to

No joke, way better than lame ol mr. rodgers.

He was reading a newspaper at about four years old.

9 movies and 2 decades of spotlight..

When he kissed booger lips.....🤢

Yep! Ernest Scared Stupid was what I grew up on too!

Ernest goes to Camp! Where he pumped up the Coleman lantern 'til it took off like a rocket🚀

Man, that troll in the bed still scares my ass!!!

He would have made a great Captain Picard.

Earnest Saves Shakespeare =)

Bye, Slinky Dog. 😢

@@jamesanthony8438 LOL!

I loved his movies when I was a kid. Such a simpler time...

@Howdy Justice Tell that to everyone who has played in movies called Hamlet...

Bryan Paul Clara Peller...I have no idea why I remembered her name.😃

Thinking she is grate

Brokaw's a Joke!

it is okay to cry Dixie Rose Jim V a r n e y got lung cancer from smoking only 50 years old

sure glad I quit smoking just before the turn of the century Dixie Rose I am in my late 50s

Jim was one in a googolplex; that guy should still be around to see that folks love him to this day.

Holy shit. I had no idea. He’s amazing.

I cried in laughter! This man was HILARIOUS! 😂😂😂

I will never forget that scene in Ernest Saves Christmas, watched it recently, there's this scene where he's doing a truck driver character delivering snakes to a hollywood set and he says "That's what people in Hollywood like: Snakes!" That was his most legendary performance in my opinion 🤣🤣

@DrinkwithaMexican from what I hear yeah... he was buying cats left and right.

Uncle Buckle more like, this is where the Simpson’s got this style of segue.

Literally my exact thought!

"...And that was the first time she'd ever flown a plane."

Dunno if you’ve seen it, but if not check out Daddy and Them. One of his last roles and he really nails it.

ffvi_girl Now I wish I could hear Vincent say, "Know what I mean Vern?"

At the start there's a bit of Richard Burton in there too.

I hear a slight "Robin Williams" in his Shakespeare.

Always thought he could do a nice version of vinny when i saw him out of character

No, he sounds more like John Hurt.

So, I guess you think you deserve a cookie. Varney was one of the biggest assholes in business. Even the comedians in los Angeles at the Comedy Club hated him because he was so annoying and egotistical. Worst comedian in history.

lol damn Katherine you're cold

@@TheresaPowers because you know everyone who's worked with him. Shhhh.

What crawled up your ass? Never mind... I probably don’t want to know.

That's a great memory Bob. To actually be so close up in watching him perform. I loved Earnest so much as a child. Summer Camp one was my favorite. Completely forgot about the commercials he would do

Katie Varney bull shit

@@nobody-xu8ju Why would anyone want to lie about that?

Wow @Katie Varney, that’s cool!

@@_Trenchfoot_ But not as much of a nobody as someone who makes the effort to insult someone on KZfaq. #knowwhutimeanvern?

@@_Trenchfoot_ In other words, you, being the real loser, think you can identify with the man, but like most morons, confuse the person with a character they play. YOU LOSE, asshole!

He was a very talented man. There might still be an old Chevy Chase show clip floating around, where he winds up the interview by playing a dulcimer.

He also played the dad in the Beverly Hillbillies movie in the 90's

Fuck Varney. He was an asshole in person.

@@TheresaPowers And you know this how?

@@TheresaPowers You claim shit like that and then not follow up with why. Stop talking shit.

@@TheresaPowers lol this person here probably was born after Jim died. Never heard anybody say anything bad about him.

Marty Keaton Err, same difference dude.

@@SwarthySkinnedOne Jerk implies intention.

@@SolarisKane Explain, please. As you've put it, can't make any sense of it.

@@SwarthySkinnedOne I looked up the definition and it seems it is a broad term. So it's just my opinion then. I would prefer to call Ernest a fool rather than a jerk.

@@SolarisKane That's why I asserted "same difference". A Jerk can be someone who tends to be carelessly to deliberately inconsiderate and rude (an asshole, a douche, a dick etc.) or simply socially inept (like Earnest made a career of being, goofball style). But either way both can be annoying and get on one's last nerve. Agree?

I plan to make this my new Christmas season tradition from now on! 👍👍

Ernestio ernestio wherefore art thou ernestio?

Alas poor Yorick! I knew him, Vern!

I met him when was a kid. Really nice guy.

If you lived in Lexington, Ky. (his home town) around that time it was hard to avoid him :) He was very friendly and approachable and funny.

My favorite memory of one of my late uncles was when he took my cousins and I to see "Earnest Goes to Jail"..we were the only ppl in the room for that showing..it was awesome!

Me too, I love Earnest goes to Army and Africa growing up in 2000s was great.. XD

Jason Bolin i agree i loved his movies and he seemed to be the nicest guy, i grew up with his movies

I would always beg my dad to rent Ernest goes camp. They were great as a young kid, so was his TV show. Even saw Ernest goes to jail at the drive in before it closed.

Get Mike Roe the script. We need to make this happen. Miss the dude. Good wholesome fun. I use his line all the time. People don't get it. I have to remindd them.

Definitely similarities but rowe has too much bass i think

I cant un-hear that now, thank you

If anyone could pull it off, with justice!

I been saying this for years.

I used to wake up early to watch both those. I still can't belive I survived the 80s.

Agreed!

He fore sure was.

@Sçøtt Sállëy No we didn't forget them until we thought about Varney, those guys couldn't compare to Jim and he didn't have to be a burn out to make it.

@Sçøtt Sállëy Actually "burn out", not "born outs" as you slurred it.

Sçøtt Sállëy Who said anything about forgetting anyone? The guy just made a comment and stated an opinion on Jim Varney. How are the others even relevant to the conversation?

Yeah, I miss those times. Totally agree.

Xa Agripha he had the effect on me as a kid as well. Lots of ‘90s-era child actors were older men playing an immature version of an adult, but with Ernest it was never felt patronizing. The vibe this guy emitted was so carefree and nonjudgmental that I truly believed he was a friend of mine, roaming around the outside world, occasionally inviting me along on his adventures.

He was a right funny Jed Clampett.

​@@chuckhouse5179 yes,he was. When that movie came out,I was in high school,and a friend of mine and I had a sleep over at her house and watched it. I honestly didn't go into it thinking it was going to be any good. Two hours later,she and i both were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. I think if they had picked anyone but Mr.Varney for Jed, it would have been awful. Heck,the whole cast was tailor made. I grew up watching the old episodes on tv bc my dad loved the show. I loved it!

That movie is so underrated lol

He was perfect in that movie! So sweet and funny!

I had no idea as a kid how perfectly cast he was as Jed Clampett. He was amazing. Fun fact: because of this movie, I still call Diedrich Bader Jethro 😂

I wish he didn’t smoke. He would still be alive.

@@loriellajames6978 Would have liked to see him in some straight acting roles.

Perfect British accent. All the 'if onlys'...

Vern is you

Crowley9 earnest is awesome

Shaping the childhood of billions of people and becoming a ubiquitous icon of the decade in which he was prominent? Worse ways to go...

@@XMetalChefX Not to mention he won a Daytime Emmy for the role, back when the Daytime Emmys meant something.

PSMTCHEF Ernest Saves Christmas also showcased his other hilarious characters like Aunt Nelda, she nearly does a Shakespearean soliquoy in the movie lol.

that's why most talent see type casting as a negative. Remember that the next time you complain that your favorite band didn't play enough of their greatest hits at a concert.

Theomite Commerce pays the bills. Hamlet doesn’t unless it is in New York.

@@thepunditspundit1776 Ernest paid the bills. He could do more but no one wanted him for it until the very end of his life. I still don't think 100 PROOF has been given a video release yet, after all these years.

Theomite You want the truth? I’d watch a full rendition of Hamlet with Jim Varney

Im not sure what youre trying to say about Vincent Price, He starred in every genre in every form of media including music videos and his own cooking show. As for Gandolfini, If being acknowledged as having given possibly the best performance in television history is "squandering" id like to know what you consider time well spent.

@@justingrassmyer4747 Vincent Price was cast as a horror staple for the better part of 40 years. All the other stuff you mention was outside his regular career that the public didn't regularly consume or get exposure to. It was only in the last 5 or so years of his life that he was given license to do non-genre-related material like BACKTRACK or THE HEART OF JUSTICE. Before that, you gotta go back to the 40s to see his dramatic stuff, which he *dominates* in. James Gandolfini was great in The Sopranos...and that's what he got known for. In movies he was always cast as an anonymous sadistic villain who was always confused for Tom Sizemore with facial hair. Every now and then, he was given something to be sublime in, like THE MEXICAN or ENOUGH SAID. The point with Gandolfini is that he died before he could get far enough away from The Sopranos to show people what *else* he could do, so we only have a handful of things. Vincent Price and Jim Varney and Robert Reed were almost never cast outside their famous roles due to industry bullshit. So yeah, you can lump them all in together because they all could've done more and weren't able to.

Xerdar36 He would've made a great villain character I think.

Yeah I saw that look, too. Ed O’Neill was bitter for many years for being inseparable from Al Bundy. In his older age he’s developed appreciation for it. If Varney lived long enough he’d have done more diverse roles and probably would have appreciated how he gave birth to an iconic, although goofy, character that catapulted his career

I don't think he's really that sad about it. He loved being an entertainer and he loved kids. To the point that he wouldn't let pictures of him smoking be taken. He didn't want kids going "Well Ernest smokes, so it's okay.".