Ernest P. Worrell

Ernest Powertools Worrell is the titular protagonist of a series of motion pictures and commercials (which came out before his theatrical films). He is portrayed by the late Jim Varney, whose most frequent role was Ernest. Ernest is a friendly and compassionate yet very unintelligent, gullible and clumsy man who is struggling to find a purpose in life. Throughout his motion pictures, he always has changed his occupations. He only works blue-collar jobs, mainly since he did not do well in school. His first appearance in theaters was Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam, although his first major appearance was Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).

Ernest is known to live with a neighbor named Vern. While Vern is not seen on-screen, he is the person that Ernest considers his best friend. Vern despises Ernest very much due to his clumsiness. The audience can only see from Vern's point-of-view such as in Ernest Saves Christmas. Vern hates Ernest so much that he does not talk to Ernest even though he keeps talking to and asking Vern questions, especially ''"KnowhutImean, Vern?" In Ernest Saves Christmas,'' Ernest brings in a Christmas tree to Vern's house, but he does it in a clumsy manner then sabotages much of the interior of Vern's house and pulls out a wire connected to a wall lamp which causes the lamp to break. Santa Claus reveals that Ernest has been with Vern since childhood.

Ernest and Children
In Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Ernest Scared Stupid, he is paired up with young teenagers or children.

Ernest Goes to Camp sets Ernest up with several teenage or juvenile campers who are at first sadistic to Ernest, but then become redeemed and help him in protecting their camping territory Kamp Kikakee all out of sympathy for him when he is bullied and assaulted by Sherman Krader's construction crew. There were so many campers in the film that they were not given names. The youngest camper, an African American boy, was the kindest camp scout to Ernest and tried to unsuccessfully help Ernest fight back against a strong violent construction worker who was given the task to demolish the camp.

In Ernest Saves Christmas, a teenage girl named Pamela Trenton (but goes by the pseudonym Harmony Starr) meets with Ernest and chooses to follow him rather than go back to her parents. She ran away from her parents who she didn't appreciate then assists him in bailing Santa out of prison. Harmony lies all the time and encourages Ernest to lie to people just like she does so he can avoid getting into trouble.

In Ernest Scared Stupid, he is paired up with a boy named Kenny who becomes aware of the situation that the troll Trantor is terrorizing the town and rescues Ernest from being slashed by the troll army. Kenny brings in five children with milk, the trolls' weakness, to rescue the townspeople from the trolls.

Childhood
Ernest's great-great grandfather Phineas Worrell during the 19th century had trapped Trantor through heavy nets and throwing him into a deep pit. Trantor curses that one of Phineas' descendants will free Trantor and they will get less and less intelligent. This is how Ernest P. Worrell was born incredibly unintelligent. During school, he was so annoying to his teacher that he was forced to write "I never knew when to quit" several times then his teacher whacks him (Ernest Scared Stupid).