Ernest, a lovable loser who works as a summer camp handyman and dreams of becoming a guidance councilor, must find a way to inspire a group of juvenile delinquents as well as stop a shady strip mining company from closing the camp.
A man claiming to be Santa Claus arrives in Orlando, Florida, where Ernest P. Worrell is working as a taxicab driver. He picks up Santa, who tells Ernest that he is on his way to inform a local celebrity named Joe Carruthers that he has been chosen to be the new Santa Claus. Joe hosts a local children's program with emphasis on manners and integrity.
Security guards Chuck and Bobby play a game of Red light/Green light while being night watchmen for Howard County Bank and Trust and are obsessed with elaborate schemes of would-be thieves. They hear a sound coming from a floor polisher that Ernest (who works as a night custodian but dreams of being a clerk) is trying to turn on for operation, but he ends up making a mess in the bank and he becomes magnetic from a mishap with the floor polisher. The next day, World bank Oscar Pendlesmythe's assistant, Charlotte Sparrow orders him to clean up his supernatural mess. Pendlesmythe wants to terminate Ernest's employment at the bank, but Charlotte has a soft heart for misfits and stray dogs, so she argues on his behalf. Ernest takes a bath at home in a tumble dry washing machine and uses a blow dryer with a windtunnel force for his evening dinner with Charlotte in a restaurant. He later receives in the mail a summons stating that he has been selected for jury duty in court and tells the two watchmen about it. During the trial, Dracup Maximum Security Prison convict and defendant Rubin Bartlett notices that Ernest is a dead ringer for death row inmate Felix Nash. Bartlett has his lawyer convince the jury to tour the prison, where Bartlett arranges for Ernest to be kidnapped by Nash and another inmate named Lyle and switched with Nash. After the jury returns to court, Nash tricks the jury into announcing Bartlett not guilty, allowing Bartlett to return to jail and resume his current sentence. Even though Ernest tries to tell the guards he is not Nash, they refuse to believe him. Ernest also does not know that he has a death sentence, which is for Nash.
Trantor is a demonic troll who transforms children into wooden dolls to feast upon their energy out on Briarville, Missouri in the late 19th Century. He is captured by the townsfolk and Premature burial an oak tree. One of the village elders, Phineas Worrell, an ancestor of Ernest, establishes the seal. Out of vengeance, Trantor places a curse on the Worrell family, stating that he can only be released on the night before Halloween and by the hands of a Worrell. As part of the curse, every generation of Worrells will get "dumber and dumber and dumber", until the dumbest member of the family is foolish enough to release him from his earthly prison, culminating in Ernest P. Worrell.
Buffoonish Ernest and his dimwitted pal Abner unearth a huge cannon reputed to contain the crown jewels of England.
Ernest (Jim Varney) works as a janitor at Chickasaw Falls High School, which is facing closure due to the school board's decision to merge other schools in the area. There is also a new rule: All employees are required to have a high school diploma, which Ernest lacks due to an incomplete high school transcript.
Ernest P. Worrell becomes a basketball star after an angel bearing an uncanny resemblance to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives him a pair of magic sneakers.
Ernest P. Worrell has been fired from his job due to accidentally crushing a lady's car. He goes to a local restaurant and asks his crush, Rene Loomis to go on a date with him. He is turned down by her because she wants to date somebody more adventurous. Ernest decided to buy her a gift to show that he really cares for her. He goes to a flea market where he buys two jewels, unaware that they are the "Eyes of Igoli" stolen from the Sinkatutu tribe in Africa by a runaway man named Mr. Rabhas who is being chased by two henchmen of Prince Kazim. He is cornered by the men but rescued by a man named Thompson and his strong African bodyguard, Bazu.
Ernest joins the Army reserves so he can drive the bigrigs, but ends up being sent into combat!
Jim Varney stars in a TV show based on the movies about Ernest P. Worrell. That delightful bumbling Ernest P. Worrell is now on Saturday Mornings! His very own show where he's always up to something that lands poor Vern in trouble.
