Knowhutimean? Hey Vern, It's My Family Album

I caught this show by accident the night it aired on television and taped it. It is hilarious, and Jim Varney was at his comedic best. If it is available on video and you are a Jim Varney fan, I highly recommend this one.

Jim Varney plays several characters in this film. Each character has the same goofiness, yet is distinct in very funny ways. I believe this was probably the basis for his 'Vern' characters in his later works. I was sad to see him pass away. Even though I didn't care for the "Earest" series of movies that much, I think this was a reflection on the writers and not the actor.

Although not a great example of cohesive film making, this film is a great example of what can be done when fun is included in the making of a piece of entertainment. This is also a great platform for Jim Varney's great talent for range and voices. He plays almost every character, and it is great fun to watch him go from the bumbling Ernest to Uncle Lloyd, the meanest man in the world, to the dozen or so characters he does as Corporal Davey Worrell. Come on, it's just for fun. If you find it, rent it, and prepare to belly laugh. Jim Varney will be missed. We need more of that silliness in Hollywood today.

Back in my single days, my roommates and I had every line memorized from the skit where he portrayed every single character in a frontier standoff between the occupants of a fort and the dreaded "Beige foot"

His true gift was mimicry; in that one skit he portrayed every conceivable war movie stereotype; John Wayne, Walter Brennan, a British officer, an Irish soldier, "Cookie" the fort's cook, and an assortment of others. In one of his later movies, Earnest Goes to Jail, he slips into the roll of Sylvester Stallone and then James Mason w/o missing a beat. He just had an amazing gift. The sad part is most people just think of him as the bumbling kid movie star

We'll miss you big guy....

Like all the Ernest movies, this video has some very hilarious parts as well as some inane parts. But does it matter? No. As a Ernest fan, I really watch something with Ernest to see what bone headed move he'll make next. In this video, Jim Varney plays some of his relatives. Some of it is a little annoying, but it's mostly just plain fun.

This video contains some pretty amazing skits. Some are amazingly funny, and some are so amazingly bad that it just makes you shake your head.

The most alarming of the skits is the Corporal Davy Worrell sketch. This is done so well it's downright scary. It's a magnum opus of schizophrenic behavior so real you have to wonder why he didn't wind up in the rubber room next to Jonathan Winters. The "Meanest Man in the World" segment has pretty decent acting. And the string of non-sequiter utterances during the Pops Worrell skit is one for the ages.

Others, in particular the "Billy Boogie" segment, are absolutely dreadful and embarrasing to watch. Trust me, this is why the "FF" button was invented. Even worse than the "Earnest" movies, if you can imagine such a thing.

The production values are pretty awful, but that doesn't really detract. I actually lived very near most of the locations in central Kentucky, like the repro Fort Boonesboro in the Davy Worrell segment. I ran model boats in the creek in the Pops skit, and I have seen the abandoned bus in which Queequeg lives. Talk about a brush with fame!