Ernest Goes to Jail

Security guards Chuck and Bobby hear a sound coming from Howard County Bank and Trust and find a floor polisher that night custodian Ernest is trying to turn on. Ernest dreams that he would be a clerk, but he ends up making a mess in the bank and he becomes magnetic after being electrocuted. The next day, bank president Oscar Pendlesmythe's assistant, Charlotte Sparrow, requires him to clean up his disastrous mess and asks Ernest out to dinner to give him advice. He later receives in the mail a summons to jury duty. During the trial, convict Rubin Bartlett, who is being tried for killing a fellow prisoner, notices that death row inmate Felix Nash resembles Ernest. Rubin's lawyer convinces the jury to tour the prison, where Ernest is kidnapped by Nash and another inmate named Lyle and forced to switch places with Nash. He has numerous misadventures in prison until he is sent to the electric chair in Nash's place.

The electrocution fails, and Ernest is transformed into a type of superhuman, with the ability to shoot lightning bolts from his hands. Lyle stands in his way, only to reveal he has taken a liking to Ernest and tells him to stop Nash. Ernest offers to free Lyle, who declines on the basis he is a guilty man who must serve his time. Ernest escapes from the prison and makes his way home, only to discover that his Pee-wee Herman–like décor has been replaced by a slick lounge lizard style of decorating. He exclaims, "I've been vandalized—by Elvis!" Ernest then goes to the bank, in his old clothes, only to find that Nash has assumed his identity and is in the process of robbing the bank and is holding Chuck and Charlotte hostage. During the ensuing battle between the two of them Ernest gets electrocuted yet again. Now Ernest has become polarized and gained the ability to fly. He uses his super powers to fly through the skylight of the bank with a bomb that Nash had attached to the vault which leads to a spectacular mid-air explosion. Everyone that Ernest has been killed, until Ernest falls through the skylight and lands on Nash. Ernest tiredly declares, "I came, I saw, I got blowed up" and then passes out.

• Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell / Felix Nash / Auntie Nelda
• Gailard Sartain as Chuck
• Bill Byrge as Bobby
• Barbara Tyson as Charlotte Sparrow (credited as "Barbara Bush")
• Barry Scott as Rubin Bartlett
• Randall "Tex" Cobb as Lyle
• Dan Leegant as Oscar Pendlesmythe
• Charles Napier as Warden Carmichael
• Jackie Welch as Judge
• Jim Conrad as Eddie
• Emily Corbishdale as Betty McGee
• Andy Stahl as Jerry (as Andrew Stahl)
• Bob Babbitt as Washing Con
• Myke R. Mueller as Vinnie (as Myke Mueller)
• Chambers Stevens as Jury Man (uncredited)
• Buck Ford as Rubin's Attorney (uncredited)

Originally released on Laserdisc[8] and VHS in January 1991, and its first DVD release was on September 3, 2002 from Touchstone Home Entertainment. Mill Creek Entertainment re-released it on February 10, 2008 as part of the Ernest 2-Movie Collection with Slam Dunk Ernest and on January 18, 2011, as part of a two-disc set Ernest Triple Feature along with Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Scared Stupid. They also released the film for the first time on Blu-ray on March 29, 2011 in a single disc Double Feature set along with Ernest Goes to Camp. The 2011 releases mark the first time the film has been available in widescreen.

An alternate edit of this film aired on NBC in August 1994, which contained several additional scenes not found on its home media releases, including an alternative ending scene where Ernest now works as a bank clerk, but another electrical mishap causes a file cabinet to fly towards him.[9]

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