Jim Varney himself sang the song "Gee I'm Glad It's Raining" in a single take. Reportedly, when he finished performing the song, there wasn't a single dry eye on set.
Lyle Alzado broke Jim Varney's nose by mistake during the fight scene. Jim said the crack you hear in the movie wasn't added later.
Several items in Ernest's cabin - alligator puppet, picture of his mother (also portrayed by Jim Varney), a helmet labeled "Fast Ernie" - were all used on commercials Jim Varney did in the early 1980s.
This is the first out of four "Ernest" films produced by Disney, and released under their Touchstone Pictures banner. Disney first discovered the Ernest P. Worrell character at the 1985 Indianapolis 500, where Jim Varney, as Ernest, was one of a handful of celebrity guests in the 500 Festival Parade. The event that year was Disney-themed, with Mickey Mouse serving as grand marshal. At the beginning of the parade, Mickey received predictable applause as he rode past in his convertible and waved to the onlookers. But a few minutes later, Ernest followed behind riding atop a pace car... and the crowd of 500,000 went berserk (they even all screamed, "Hey, Vern!" as Varney passed). Disney heads Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had never even heard of the Ernest character, were both in the audience and were stunned at the bigger response that Ernest was getting over the Mouse. Eisner decided to capitalize and they tracked down John R. Cherry III and Jim Varney, had lunch and worked out a deal.
This is the very first "Ernest" movie.