Blake Clark (who did the voice of Slinky Dog in Toy Story 3) will be the new Ernest sometime in the near future
- Unfortunately, Blake Clark does not have the same build as Jim Varney.
- They could just say he put on a few pounds.
Ernest was partly based on Shemp of The Three Stooges
They have a lot of the same mannerisms, and similar personalities. It's sad Jim Varney died before he could play Shemp in a Three Stooges movie.Ernest P. Worrell's Spiritual Successor is Larry the Cable Guy.
- Larry can come across as being similar to Ernest.
Ernest's true identity is an amnesiac Doctor Otto.
At the end of the movie Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Bean, the villainous Doctor Otto steps into his changing coffin one final time, right before his secret lair explodes. When next we see him, he steps out of the changing coffin as Ernest. The explosion must have overloaded the changing coffin, causing Doctor Otto to lose his memories. Now he believes he truly is Ernest P. Worrell. The overload also gave Ernest the ability to temporarily resume any identity previously created by the changing coffin, as well as his original identity of Otto von Schnick.