[3] The only national products the character promoted were The Coca-Cola Company's sodas,[4] Chex cereals, and Taco John's.

The rubber-faced, Southern-accented Ernest, almost always dressed in a denim vest and a baseball cap, appeared at the door or window of an unseen, unheard, and seemingly unwilling neighbor named Vernon, or "Vern" for short.

The Ernest ads were shot with a handheld film camera at the Nashville-area home of producer John Cherry III and Jerry Carden, beginning in 1980.

Producer Coke Sams stated that Varney had a photographic memory and would read through the script one time then insert the various products' names on different takes.

[9] A Saturday morning sketch comedy series, Hey Vern, It's Ernest!, followed shortly thereafter, which won Varney a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance.

A series of five feature-length comedies starred Ernest between 1987 and 1993, followed by four more direct-to-video entries; all nine were directed by either John Cherry or Coke Sams.

In the films, Ernest is apparently somewhat aware of his extreme resistance to harm, as in Ernest Rides Again, he seemed barely fazed by nails bending after being fired at his skull, remarking "Good thing they hit the hard end", he also commented that he would be dead "If I wasn't this close to being an actual cartoon."

To allow Varney to act out his numerous other characters, Ernest is portrayed as a master of disguise, able to pose as one of any number of relatives to get out of a predicament.

In his Ernest role, Varney appeared in dozens of Cerritos Auto Square commercials for many years on Los Angeles area television stations; he also appeared in commercials for Audubon Chrysler Center in Henderson, Kentucky, John L. Sullivan auto dealerships in the Sacramento, California area, the Pontiac, Michigan-based electronics store ABC Warehouse, and the Oklahoma City-based Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Store.

[12] Sams said a script had been written for Ernest and the Voodoo Curse: "We went back to the Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein kind of thing.

[11] Ernest has been parodied in numerous television series, including Beavis and Butt-Head, Family Guy and The Simpsons.

Other TV shows that have referenced the Ernest movies include ALF, Saved by the Bell, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Kenan & Kel, The Nanny, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Teen Titans Go!, Paradise PD, and many more.

He has recently been spoofed by Arkansas-based spokesman John Lee in television commercials for Englert Leaf Guard gutters.

In at least one version of the Retro City Rampage game series, "Ernest Gets Rabies" can be seen on the theatre marquee as one of the movies being shown.

[15] Both books were designed as if Ernest had created his own homemade zine, featuring a varied collection of jokes, puns, musings, and art.