Series Overview
Ernest the Pirate was in production when Jim Varney died.
The notion of the “funny redneck” has been around as long as rednecks have been around. You can find comic strips from the 1910s for precedent on Ernest’s type of character, and the archetype continues with so-called blue collar comedians like Larry the Cable Guy or, say, Bill Engvall. But most blue collar comedians strike me as a bit condescending. Like they tout the redneck lifestyle as a superior one. Ernest doesn’t have that quality. He’s so innocent and so dumb, he is perfectly content to be what he is. He is never confrontational about his personality. He has no self-awareness. And he certainly would never think to insult anyone.
This is why Ernest is the superior comic creation. He may not have made films with an edge, but you could see that there was, lurking somewhere in a parallel dimension, and edgy Ernest film waiting to be discovered. I think, indeed, that Ernest should be compared less to Larry the Cable Guy, and more to Pee-Wee Herman. A feckless man-child weirdo who can only see the world through their own cartoonish filter, but who is always upbeat and happy, eager to indulge their own bizarre interests and carnival living.
In a very real way, then, Ernest transcends his own crappy movies. He exists outside of his films.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
