Just like how every Halloween I watch Ernest Scared Stupid, every year around now I try to watch one of my favorite Christmas movies of the 80s, Ernest Saves Christmas (Amazon).
You either love Ernest or you hate him, but you can’t deny the fact that the Ernest P. Worrell phenomenon was one of the oddest things in pop culture history to this day. The character was created by an ad agency in Nashville, and grew to such huge popularity that they expanded to television and films.
Ernest Saves Christmas came out in 1988, and I remember watching it on TV just about every year. In this movie Ernest is a taxi driver in Orlando when Santa comes to town looking for a replacement.
Ernest is in a mad rush to get a passenger to the Orlando Airport, and just about kills him in the process. Meanwhile Santa has arrived via plane, with his sleigh (and reindeer) in cargo. Santa is played by Douglas Seale, and you might recognize his voice from his roles as the Sultan in Aladdin and Krebbs in The Rescuers Down Under.
Santa provides some exposition about why he’s looking to retire (kids today…), and that he’s got his eyes set on Joe Carruthers, a local children’s TV personality, to fill his boots.
I don’t really get why he had to take a plane to Orlando and ship his sleigh, especially because he makes a comment about only having Monopoly money on him. Regardless, he ends up meeting Ernest, and the hilarity ensues from there.
You can’t have an Ernest movie without some sort of kid character, preferably a punk kid, and so Ernest Saves Christmas has Harmony Starr. She’s a runaway who crosses paths with Mr. Claus and Mr. Worrell, and kind of reminds me of Punky Brewster.
They arrive at the Orlando Children’s Museum, which looks a lot more like a YMCA than a museum. Since Santa only has Monopoly money, Ernest lets him have the cab ride for free. So just like in almost every other Ernest movie, he gets fired.
They never get old. They always stay new. Those three little words, Please and Thank You.Joe’s Catch Phrase
No worries though, he sees that Santa left his bag in the trunk, and Ernest is faced with a harrowing mission. Take the bag…back to the…museum. Well, what the story lacks in plot, it makes up for in Jim Varney being crazy.
Joe is at the museum teaching kids about manners with dinosaur puppets, using his not-so-catchy catch phrase. “They never get old. They always stay new. Those three little words, Please and Thank You.”
Santa introduces himself and of course Joe thinks he’s insane.
In the meantime Joe’s agent is trying to get him to ditch the friendly, nice to children image and star in a low budget horror film. This doesn’t make Santa too happy, but there’s not much he can do about it because he goes and gets himself arrested.
We get to see a glimpse of Ernest’s home life, and it’s about what you would expect.
Joe takes the part in Christmas Slay, but when the director wants him to use a weapon and dirty language in front of his children costars, he quits. He reconsiders the job offer from Santa, and Ernest busts out the sleigh and reindeer.
Harmony figures out that Santa’s bag is magic (go figure) and goes a little crazy, but she comes around too.
Ernest Saves Christmas isn’t my favorite Ernest movie, but it’s fun and has it’s fair share of the rubber-faced humor and offbeat characters (that Jim Varney also portrays) to make it rewatchable. You can pick it up on Amazon or wherever Ernest movies are sold.
I’m going to be revisiting some of my other favorite Christmas movies and specials in the days leading up to December 25th, so stay tuned!
