‘KnowWhutIMean?’ Jim Varney, actor behind Ernest P. Worrell, was born in Lexington

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

Long before there was Flo from Progressive or Mayhem from Allstate, there was Ernest P. Worrell — who popped up randomly to tell his neighbor, Vern, about whatever was on his mind.

His creator, Jim Varney, was born in Lexington in 1949.

Varney was an actor from the get-go. As a child, he would entertain friends and family members by reciting poems and material from books. His mother would turn on cartoons for him, only to watch him imitate them.

He enrolled in acting classes at 8, and went on to Lafayette High School and acted in children’s theater in Lexington.

By 17, he was performing professionally. He later studied Shakespeare at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia. He performed in the Opryland folk show in the 1970s and at 24, he was an actor at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville.

By 1976, Varney was a regular cast member on “Johnny Cash and Friends,” and later appeared as recurring guest Virgil Simms on the “Fernwood 2 Night” and “America 2 Night” talk show parodies. In 1978, he was cast as Milo Skinner on the hit TV show “Alice.”

In 1980, Varney debuted his most famous character: Ernest. The first commercial to feature him was an advertisement for Beech Bend Park, near Bowling Green. In it, Ernest talks to Vern about an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

From there, the character caught on. It wasn’t long before Ernest was being franchised all over the country, used mostly to advertise milk products, with his catchphrases “Hey Vern!” or “KnowWhutIMean, Vern?”

Varney created another character for the same agency, Sgt. Glory, a humorless drill instructor who bullied cows into producing better milk and later bullied the checkout clerks of a southern grocery store, Pruett’s Food Town, on how to behave properly.

But none of his characters were ever as popular as Ernest.

Ernest went on to do commercials for natural gas companies, including one where he approaches his neighbor Vern to talk about natural gas saying, “Natural gas, Vern; it’s hot, fast, and cheap. Hot, fast, cheap; kinda like your first wife, Vern, you know, the pretty one?”

Throughout the 1980s, Ernest became more and more popular, and starred in everything from convenience store commercials to a country music show.

By 1988, Ernest had his own short-lived TV series, called “Hey Vern, It’s Ernest!” and then went on to be the main character in a number of popular films — “Ernest Goes to Camp,” “Ernest Goes to Jail,” “Ernest Scared Stupid” and “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

For a time, Ernest even had an attraction featuring him — Epcot’s Cranium Command, which used Ernest in its preshow “lovable, but not the brightest person on the planet.”

Varney won an Emmy Award for his role as Ernest, but there was more to his acting.

He was in several television shows and can be seen in Hank Williams Jr.’s video for “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.” In 1993, he starred as Jed Clampett in “The Beverly Hillbillies” movie adaptation.

Younger generations may recognize his voice as Slinky Dog in the first two “Toy Story” movies, Cooder in the “Bart Carny” episode of “The Simpsons” and Cookie Farnsworth in “Atlantis: The Lost Empire.”

Varney died of lung cancer on Feb. 10, 2000, at 50 years old.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.