The snake wrangler is a take on Jim's "Great Uncle Lloyd" character, one of his staples. The Hymn he sings for his imaginary dead son is Rock of Ages. Trivia: Uncle Lloyd's son is named Mistake, and he's fond of parmesan cheese.
ryan and kevin moving their arms at the exact same time in the same way at 29:33 is a thing that happens and i cant tell if its funny or if it scares me
Fun fact: This movie was made from an already existing screenplay and Ernest was later shoehorned in. Disney had an original script with the concept of Santa Claus retiring. However, writer-director Thom Eberhardt was approached to rewrite the screenplay, and create "a Christmas story with Santa and adults." So, Eberhardt wrote a new screenplay in three weeks. Disney flipped over it and told Eberhardt that they liked it but they're "going to set it in Orlando and turn it into an Ernest movie." Eberhardt took his name off the picture and is not credited on screen. So that's why the movie doesn't feel like an Ernest movie most of the time.
I love this series so much having just discovered it! I think the Santa in this film is one of the best movie Santas there are. It'll be interesting to see the Scared Stupid one because when I saw that film as a kid I hated it despite loving every other Ernest film I saw. So we'll see if I had any grounds for that hatred.
I just watched this movie again and felt like watching this again after, didn't notice before that Ernest has, among his Christmas lawn decorations, a shark on the wall with lights on
Aw, they didn't bring up one of my other favorite scenes in the film - when Harmony is riding along with Santa and Ernest at first in the cab, and Ernest is like "that's Santa, and I'm Ernest!" and Harmony looks at Santa, looks back at Ernest who gives her the biggest grin and there's just straight silence for the sake of comedy. It was so funny.
The glowing sack may be a reference to Repo Man or Kiss Me Deadly. I think the Pulp Fiction DVD might even cite those movies as Tarantino's "inspiration."
John Cherry might be pretty surprised to find out that he's dead, I think. Almost certainly the most polished movie in the series, and it'll have a spot in holiday cable schedules for as long as cable itself survives, but it's a bit of an odd duck in its own way. Ernest is the star, and yet it isn't really *about* him in the way that the rest are. The supporting cast drives the plot and eats up most of the emotional weight of the film as they go through the paces of the traditional Christmas movie formula. Definitely the best episode of the podcast so far, though.
I think that's why I like this one probably the most of the movies I've seen. Harmony, Santa and Joe all share in protagonist duties, so Ernest's free to help out when needed and keep things light. In some of the other movies, he comes off as a simpleton people keep around out of pity, but in this one he's seen through the eyes of Harmony as a fun caretaker, and through Santa as a caring innocent. Vern sees the real Ernest, of course.
Neil Cicierega Yeah, the mix of Ernest's established bumbling with the Pee-Wee Herman manchild shtick they doubled down on in the move from commercials to film does tend to result in him getting dumped on pretty hard. He always rises above it in the end, which is part of the appeal for me, but I can see how it'd be a poor fit for the whimsy of a Christmas film. Ah well, Varney got to exercise his dramatic chops plenty in the next movie.
Tarantino actually took the suitcase scene from "Kiss Me Deadly", which Ernest may have been making an ode to as well. But it would be funny to think he stole it from this movie lol.
I know it's been a year since you commented, but in case you didn't know, they did do a commentary track for this movie. It's available on their Patreon.
Oh my god is is that scene where Santa punches the director in an argument i think that might be the deepest joke of all time !!! Ok ok ok have you ever watched a review of Kirk Cameron's saving Christmas???? I just use that as reference for the council of nicea* story where in rage over what someone was saying bout Jesus st Nicholas smote him on the cheek! Am I over thinking this probably but I had to bring it up
Coca Cola did own Columbia pictures for a while. I haven't finished the video yet, so if you already know this I can do nothing but apologise profusely.
